^^H^n 

m 

/■ly 


f  IflEOLCGICAL  SEMINAKY.  | 

Pimcetcn,  W.  J. 


f,        ^vr.sv  '         BL    2747     .P42    1855 

I  '    '  Pearson,    Thomas,    1740-1781 

I       ^''''f'         Infidelity 


Jiooh\ 


INEIDELITY; 


ITS,  ASPECTS,  CAUSES,  AND  AGENCIES? 


THE    PRIZE    ESSAY 


BEITISH  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE 


REV.  THOMAS' PEARSOJ!^, 

EYEMOUTH,  SCOTLAND. 


PEN8ANTUR   TRUTIIfA. Horace. 

'O  6i  Tzoiuv  TTJv  d^deiav  ipx^rai,  Trpof  to  ^ug. — The  Maiter. 


NEW  YORK: 

ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS, 

No.    285     BROADWAY. 

1855. 


CONTENTS. 


P1.0B 

INTRODUCTION  ,  .    .        .        ,    .         xxx 


PART    THE   FIRST. 
INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  ASPECTS 15 

CHAP   I.    ATHEISM ;  OR,  THE  DENIAL  OF  THE  DIVINE  EX- 
ISTENCE   18 

II.    PANTHEISM;    OR,  THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   DIVINE 

PERSONALITY • 51 

IIL    NATURALISM;  OR,  THE  DENIAL  OF  THE  DIVINE 

PROVIDENTIAL  GOVERNMENT    ...  97 

IV.     SPIRITUALISM ;  OR,  THE   DENIAL  OF  THE   BIBLE 

REDEMPTION 171 

^J0  V.    INDIFFERENTISM :    OR,    THE    DENIAL    OF    MAN'S 

RESPONSIBILITY 263 

VI    FORMALISM;    OR,  THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   POWER 

OF  GODLINESS 300 


PART  THE  SECOND. 
INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  CAUSES 338 

CHAP.  I     GENERAL  CAUSE .  '335 

II.     SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY  362 


IV  CONTENTS. 

OHAP  III.  SOCIAL  DISAFFECTION 385 

IV.  THE  CORRUPTIONS  OF  CHRISTIANITY     ....  403 

V.  RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE 428 

VI.  DISUNION  OF  THE  CHURCH  .    • 466 


PART    THE  THIRD. 

INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  AGENCIES.    .•    .    .    .  483 

CHAP   L     THE  PRESS 485 

IL    THE  CLUBS      ... 526 

IIL    THE  SCHOOLS  ...  549 

IV     THE  PULPIT     ...  .....  577 

APPENDIX     .    .    •    .         .  .    .         ,  «06 


% 

.<<** 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  answer  given  by  the  messengers  to  the  angel 
of  the  Lord  that  stood  among  the  myrtle  trees,  in  the 
vision  of  Zechariah  the  prophet,  does  not  apply  to 
our  times  :  "  We  have  walked  to  and  fro  through  the 
earth,  and  behold  all  the  earth  sitteth  still  and  is  at 
rest."  Politically  and  morally,  in  the  sphere  of  things 
sacred  and  in  the  sphere  of  things  civil,  Europe,  in 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is  a  troubled 
sea.  Numerous  and  mighty  agencies,  both  for  good 
and  evil,  are  abroad  and  at  work.  These  agencies 
may  embody  the  same  great  principles  that  have 
been  opposing  and  struggling  with  each  other  from 
the  beginning.  Light  and  darkness  strove  on  the 
face  of  the  deep  before  this  goodly  universe  rose  out 
of  chaos,  and  they  have  their  strivings  still.  Error 
is  not  of  yesterday  any  more  than  truth.  They  en- 
countered each  other  in  Paradise,  they  have  had 
many  encounters  since,  and  they  are  yet  in  the 
field.     But  periods  arise  which  become  exalted  into 


Vi  INTRODUCTION. 

epochs,  when  these  ancient  forces,  on  the  one  side  or 
on   both,  display  more   than  usual  vigor,  appear   in 
new  or  revived  forms,  change  their  modes  of  attack 
and   defence,    and   come   off  with  honors.       Such   a 
period  was  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel  when  truth 
in  her  fairest  form  descended  from  heaven,  sustained 
the  combined  attack  of  all  the  powers  of  evil,  and  by 
her    own    inherent   vigor    spoiled  principalities   and 
powers   and  went   on    conquering    and    to   conquer. 
Such  a  period  was  the  dark  or  middle  ages,  which, 
like  a  long  and  dreary  night,  succeeded  a  short  but 
bright   day,  when  it   seemed    as   if  truth  had  been 
driven  from  the  field,  and  the  world  had  been  given  up 
to  the  reign  of  ignorance  and  terror.     Such  a  period 
was  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which, 
with  a  voice  whose  sound  was  like  the  sea,  awoke  Eu- 
rope from  the  sleep  of  ages,  mustered  in  fierce  and  vig- 
orous conflict  all  the  powers  of  good  and  evil,  and  sent 
throughout  the  heart  of  ransomed  humanity  a  thrill  of 
joyous  liberty  that  has  echoed  over  the  earth  and  down 
the    stream    of    time.       Such    a    period,    (to     con- 
tract  our  view  within   our   own  England,)  was  that 
august    and    earnest    century     when     an     oppressed 
people  rose  up,  resolute   and  majestic,  against  their 
faithless  oppressors — when  the  Puritans  sounded   the 
Gospel  trumpet  against  the  formalism  and  irreligion 
of  the  age,  and  men  awoke  at  once  to  civil  freedom 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

and  that  yet  higher  liberty  wherewith  the  truth  makes 
men  free.  And — to  leap  over  the  bridge  that  spanned 
the  dark  and  boisterous  waters  that  rolled  between, 
one  of  those  dreary  intervals  that  ever  and  anon  occur 
in  history,  and  which  constituted  in  itself  a  dark  age, 
when  the  foe  was  permitted  to  advance  and  stretch  his 
sceptre  over  the  church  and  the  world,  and,  in  a  great 
measure,  corrupt  the  form  and  stifle  the  voice  of  truth 
itself, — such  a  period  was  the  latter  half  of  the  last 
century,  when  an  awakening  evangelism,  big,  and  feel- 
ing-hearted, counteracted  the  materialistic  tendencies 
which  a  sceptical  soulless  philosophy  had  given  to  the 
age,  and  blew  upon  the  cold  earthly  morality  that  had 
usurped  the  place  of  the  Gospel  in  the  college  chair 
and  in  the  church  pulpit. 

The  fruits  of  this  latter  age,  fruits  both  good  and 
evil,  we  are  now  reaping.  There  is  more  reason, 
however,  to  be  thankful  for  its  legacy  of  good,  than  to 
deplore  the  inheritance  of  its  evil.  Its  shining  light 
has  shined  more  and  more  unto  our  own  day,  but 
masses  of  dark  clouds  envious  and  portentous  have 
followed  it.  We  are  not  so  moodishly  disposed  as  to 
call  to  remembrance  the  former  days  and  say  that 
they  were  better  than  the  present.  No,  the  age, 
carrying  along  with  it  much  of  the  rich  good  of  the 
past  is,  in  spite  of  many  drawbacks,  advancing  on- 
ward in   the  right  path.     There  is  in  the  heart  of 


VIU  INTRODUCTION 

humanity  a  much  larger  amount  of  the  leaven  of  heav- 
enly truth  than  could  be  found  at  any  preceding 
period,  and,  notwithstanding  all  opposing  tendencies, 
it  is  spreading,  and  will  spread.  Despotism,  which 
robs  man  of  his  rights,  and  obstructs  the  progress  of 
God's  truth,  is  losing  its  ground,  and  truth  and  free- 
dom are  advancing.  The  Bible,  the  schoolmaster, 
the  evangelist,  and  the  missionary,  are  abroad.  The 
church  at  home  is  becoming  more  and  more  alive  to 
the  call  of  her  Lord,  'arise,  shine,' — her  voice  is  be- 
coming more  loud  and  earnest  in  the  pulpit,  her  in- 
struction agencies  among  our  home  population  are 
strengthening,  and  thickly  multiplying,  and  she  is 
lengthening  her  cords  so  as  to  embrace  within  her 
pale  the  abundance  of  the  sea  and  the  forces  of  the 
Gentiles.  But  if  it  is  unwise  to  brood  over  the 
maladies  of  an  age  as  if  it  were  only  evil  and  that 
continually,  it  is  not  less  so  to  glory  in  its  fair  forms 
and  healthy  activities  as  if  oblivious  of  its  wounds 
and  bruises  and  putrefying  sores.  The  sun  is  in  the 
heavens  bright  and  beaming,  but  the  clouds  have 
gathered  surcharged  with  the  elements  of  strife,  and 
they  are  ever  and  anon  darkening  and  troubling  the 
sky.  Our  age  is  one  of  intense  earnestness  and  action 
both  for  good  and  evil.  The  old  truth  and  the  old 
error  which  have  struggled  throughout  the  past, 
are   in   the   field.      But  neither   is   slumbering,  both 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

are  vigilant,  extending  their  lines,  increasing 
their  forces,  devising  and  adopting  new  modes  of 
defence  and  attack,  as  if  conscious  that  a  blow  was 
about  to  be  struck  which  would  mark  another  great 
era  in  the  conflict  between  the  powers  of  good  and 
evil. 

There  are  giants  on  the  earth  in  these  days  both 
in  the  one  encampment  and  in  the  other.  A  mJghty 
force  is  on  the  side  of  the  friends  of  truth,  but  it  is 
sadly  divided  and  scattered.  What  is  wanting  is  the 
strength  of  union,  the  concentration  of  those  energies 
in  defending  the  citadel  and  making  inroads  on  the 
enemy,  which  are  spent  on  the  defence  of  comparatively 
unimportant  posts,  or  in  one  detachment  of  the  same 
corps  guarding  against  the  encroachment  of  another. 
The  champions  of  error,  though  not  without  their 
discords  and  divisions,  are  yet  wiser  in  their  genera- 
tion than  the  children  of  light.  As  of  old  they  dis- 
cern the  signs  of  the  times,  and  take  counsel  together 
against  the  Lord  and  against  his  anointed.  The  Press, 
to  which  under  God  we  owe  so  much  of  our  light  and 
liberties,  wields  a  mighty  influence  on  the  side  of  evil. 
The  halls  of  philosophy,  hallowed  though  they  be  by 
many  a  name  illustrious  for  Christian  worth  as  well  as 
intellectual  greatness,  are  often  sending  forth  doctrines 
as  gross  as  the  earth  or  as  vague  as  the  air,  but  alike 
adverse  to  that  truth  which  coming    from   aboTe   is 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

above  all.  Our  current  literature  and  works  on 
science,  with  not  a  few  bright  and  beneficent  excep- 
tions, are  hostile  either  by  their  silence  in  reference 
to  divine  truth  when  their  subjects  afford  them  occa- 
sions to  speak  out,  or  by  their  avowed  opposition  to 
much  of  what  constitutes  the  essence  of  true  religion. 
And  what  is  peculiar  in  a  great  measure  to  our  times, 
and  throws  a  vast  potency  into  the  scale  of  irreligion, 
is  the  unceasing  effort  of  infidels  to  diffuse  their  prin- 
ciples among  the  artizans  and  laboring  classes  of  the 
land.  The  earth  is  not  still  and  at  rest.  Men  of 
every  class  are  searching  after  an  unknown  good. 
The  demon  of  infidelity  is  stalking  abroad,  knocking 
at  the  palaces  of  the  rich  and  the  cottages  of  the 
poor,*  transforming  itself  into  this  shape  and  that, 
and  becoming  all  things  except  an  angel  of  good,  to 
all  men.  One  dreary  theory  succeeds  another,  like 
storm-cloud  chasing  storm-cloud  over  the  face  of  the 
sky,  and  yet  man  is  not  at  peace.  The  cravings  of 
his  mind  are  agonized,  not  satisfied.  It  becomes  those 
then  who  know  the  truth  and  whom  the  truth  has  . 
made  free,  those  who  having  believed  do  enter  into 
rest,  to  arouse  themselves  for  the  two-fold  object  of 
meeting  infidelity  at  its  various  points  and  combatting 
its  diversified  forms,  and  of  presenting  in  every  lawful 

*  "  Aequo  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabernas 


Regumque  turres." — Horace. 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

way  that  truth  which  they  know  only  can  give  rest  to 
a  laboring  and  heavy-laden  world.  Let  the  antag- 
onist forces  on  the  one  side  as  well  as  as  on  the  other 
be  pressed  into  the  unfettered  conflict,  and  the  lovera 
of  God  and  the  friends  of  man  have  nothing  to  feai 
but  much  to  hope.  "  Christianity,  like  Rome,  has 
had  both  the  Gaul  and  Hannibal  at  her  gates ;  but 
as  the  '  Eternal  City,'  in  the  latter  case,  calmly  offered 
for  sale,  and  sold,  at  an  undepreciated  price,  the  very 
ground  on  which  the  Carthaginian  had  fixed  his 
camp,  with  equal  calmness  may  Christianity  imitate 
her  example  of  magnanimity.  She  may  feel  assured 
that,  as  in  so  many  past  instances  of  premature  tri- 
umph, on  the  part  of  her  enemies,  the  ground  they 
occupy  will  one  day  be  her  own ;  that  the  very  dis- 
coveries, apparently  hostile,  of  science  and  philosophy, 
will  be  ultimately  found  elements  of  her  strength."* 
''  All  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the 
flower  of  grass.  The  grass  withereth,  and  the  flower 
thereof  falleth  away.  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  en- 
dureth  forever." 

*  Rogers'  Essays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  345. 


fart  t|x  first. 

INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  ASPECTS 


ATHEISM. 

PANTHEISM. 

NATURALISM. 

PSEUDO-SPIRITUALISM. 

INDIFFERENTISM. 

FORMALISM. 


InfiWitji  in  its  f ariaiis  %B$tt% 


Infidelity,  though  elaborating  its  own  creed,  is, 
properly  speaking,  a  system  of  negations.  It  suggests 
rather  what  it  seeks  to  demolish  than  what  it  attempts 
to  build.  In  this  respect,  it  is  like  the  palmer-worm 
of  the  prophet,^  the  mere  mention  of  which  leads 
one  to  think  more  of  what  it  has  destroyed,  than  of 
what  it  has  left  to  be  eaten  by  the  locust.  But  in 
the  work  of  demolition,  one  man  or  class  of  men 
advances  farther  than  another.  Some  sacred  truths 
which  one  band  of  fell  destroyers  clear  away  in  their 
march,  another  band,  leagued  in  the  same  warfare, 
leave  standing.  Just  as  we  may  suppose  some  of  the 
soldiers  of  Caesar,  in  attacking  the  Massilian  grove, 
went  scrupulously  and  sparingly  to  work  from  a  super- 
stitious dread  of  invisible  power,  while  others,  less 
timid  and  superstitious,  levelled  to  the  ground  every 
thing  that  had  for  ages  been  counted  sacred."  Infidel- 
ity in  one  age  or  country  may  be  much  more  sweeping 

'  Joel,  i.  4.  '  Foster's  Essay,  p.  39,  15th  edit, 


16  INFIDELITY. 

than  in  another,  and,  as  everybody  knows,  contem- 
poraneous systems  of  unbelief  among  the  same  people 
may  differ  widely  in  the  number  of  things  sacred 
which  they  proscribe.  But  there  is  a  clearly-defined 
body  of  religious  truth,  in  reverencing  which,  people 
and  nations  who  have  had  and  fairly  used  the  means 
of  judging,  however  much  differing  on  other  points, 
have  generally  been  agreed.  This  is  the  ark  of  the 
God  of  Israel;  and  however  the  Philistines  may 
outstrip  each  other  in  laying  hands  upon  it,  they  are 
yet  to  be  numbered  under  one  genus,  on  the  principle 
that  depredators  are  but  depredators,  though  some 
may  be  braver  or  more  successful  in  the  work  of 
plunder  than  others.  This  body  of  truth  comprises 
all  the  commonly  understood  doctrines  of  natural 
and  revealed  religion:  such  as  the  independent  ex- 
istence of  one  absolutely  perfect  Being,  the  Creator, 
Preserver,  and  Governor  of  all  things;  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity,  or  of  three  persons  in  the  Godhead, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  Incar- 
nation and  Atonement  of  the  Son  for  human  salvation ; 
and  the  necessity  of  the  Spirit's  influences  to  regener- 
ate the  souls  of  men.  This  is  God's  truth,  the  sub- 
stance of  all  that  material  nature  teaches,  the  purest 
reason  has  ever  been  able  to  discover,  and  the  Scrip- 
tures have  revealed.  There  is  room  for  a  diversity  of 
opinion  about  modes  of  eccleciastical  government, 
external  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  the  interpretation 
of  certain  Scriptural  passages,  but  no  one  who  has 
ears  to  hear,  and  who  humbly  listens  to  the  voices  ol 
aature  and  revelation,  can  fail  to  discover  what  God 


IN   ITS   VARIOUS   ASPECTS.  17 

is,  and  what  he  has  done,  what  man  is,  and  what  he 
needs.  Infidelity,  then,  is  found  to  manifest  itself  in 
such  forms  as  the  following:  in  the  denial  of  the 
Divine  Existence,  or  absolute  Atheism ;  in  the  denial  of 
the  Divine  Personality,  or  Pantheism ;  in  the  denial  of 
the  Divine  Providential  Government,  or  Naturalism ;  in 
the  denial  of  the  Divine  Redemption  (including,  as  it 
does,  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  Atonement,  and 
Spirit's  Influences,)  or  Pseudo-Spiritualism.  And  to 
these  may  be  added,  what  belong  more  properly  to 
practical,  than  to  theoretical  infidelity,  the  denial  of 
Man's  Responsibility,  or  Indifferentism ;  and  the  denial 
of  the  Power  of  Godliness,  or  Formalism.  These  forms 
we  shall  now  develop. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   DIVINE   EXISTENCE,  OR   ATHEISM. 

Atheism  completes  the  negation — A  somewhat  strange  phenomenon 
— Its  existence  doubted — No  man  of  straw — Processes  by  which 
men  have  become  atheists — Prevalent  in  most  depraved  times — 
French  atheism — Reign  of  Terror — An  atheistical  nation  self- 
destructive — No  lack  of  adverse  speculations  respecting  the  divine 
Being,  but  absolute  atheism  comparatively  rare — Development 
hypothesis  not  positively  atheistical — Atheism,  however,  a  fact — 
Involves  a  monstrous  assumption — The  existence  of  God  an  in- 
tellectual necessity — Arguments  a  2^'riori  and  a  posteriori — Exclu- 
sive claim  for  either  disposed  of — Inductive  proof  from  matter  and 
mind — Defect  of  induction — Bible  testimony — Practical  Proof  the 
real  one — Dr.  Arnold. 

Here  the  negation  is  complete.  The  work  of  de- 
molishing things  esteemed  sacred,  has  advanced  so 
far  as  to  leave  nothing  more  for  the  destroyer  to  do. 
He  has  reached  the  dreary  brink  from  which  many 
destroyers,  by  no  means  craven-hearted,  have  shrunk 
back.  And  from  that  bad  pre-eminence  he  looks 
upwards  to  the  heavens,  vacant  at  first  in  his  wishes, 
and  now  in  his  creed,  and  with  as  much  boldness  as 
if  he  had  travelled  through  the  realms  of  space  and 
beheld  all  dark  and  desolate,  says.  There  is  there  no 
God.  He  looks  down  to  the  gulf  of  annihilation, 
and,  amid  the  troubles  of  his  godless  existence,  feels 
something  like  a  morbid  satisfaction  in  the  thought 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  19 

that  the  grave  is  an  eternal  sleep  and  the  present 
scene  the  whole  of  man.  He  looks  abroad  upon  the 
mass  of  human  society,  ill  at  ease  and  yearning  after 
an  enjoyment  that  it  has  never  found,  and  to  the 
question,  "  Who  will  shew  us  any  good  ?"  he  has  only 
one  answer,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-jnorrow  we 
die."  No  religion  is  his  religion.  And  he  struggles 
against  the  aspirings  of  his  better  self,  to  rest  in  the 
dark  dogma  that  the  highest  being  is  man. 

Atheism  in  this  unqualified  sense,  is,  it  must  be 
admitted,  a  somewhat  strange  and  startling  pheno- 
menon. People  in  many  parts  would  turn  out  and 
look  at  a  real  and  avowed  atheist,  just  as  they  do  at 
some  singularly  huge  foreign  animals,  with  mingled 
astonishment  and  alarm.  Faith  in  God  is  so  in- 
herent in  the  heart  of  humanity,  and  so  essential  to 
our  reason,  that  many  wise  and  good  men  have 
doubted  if  ever  there  lived  an  intelligent  mortal  so 
absolutely  destitute  of  religious  belief  as  is  implied 
in.  atheism.  Addison  would  have  told  a  man  who 
gloried  in  this  distinction,  that  he  was  an  impudent 
liar,  and  that  he  knew  it.  Bacon  accounted  atheism 
to  be  rather  in  the  lip  than  in  the  heart,  and  that  a 
contemplative  atheist  is  a  prodigy,  a  thing  unusually 
rare.  "  I  confess,"  says  Dr.  Arnold  in  one  of  his 
weighty  letters,  "  that  I  believe  conscientious  atheism 
not  to  exist."  And  it  does  appear  an  incredible 
thing  that  a  man  possessed  of  intelligence  and  feeling, 
standing  amid  this  'glorious  amphitheatre  of  earth 
and  sky,  gazing  upon  its  grand  and  lovely  forms,  and 
listening  to  its  thousand  voices  of  rapturous  praise, 


20  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

can  coolly  deny  tlie  existence  of  Him  wlio  sits  en- 
throned above  the  heavens.  It  does  seem  hard  to  be 
believed  that  one  of  our  race  can  retire  into  the 
depths  of  his  own  inner  nature,  and  familiarize  him- 
self with  the  wondrous  phenomena  of  his  mental 
existence,  tand  yet  come  out  of  himself  and  unhesi- 
tatingly say  that  this  great  system  of  animate  and 
inanimate  being  is  without  a  presiding  and  inde- 
pendent mind.  It  does  look  like  a  very  prodigious 
thing  in  the  world  that  men  should  be  found  who  not 
only  rob  God  of  the  attributes  that  are  essential  to 
his  nature,  and  extrude  Him  from  the  domain  of  his 
own  creation,  but  can  frame  and  assent  to  the  propo- 
sition that  God  is  not.  But  such  prodigies  have  been 
and  are  ever  and  anon  recurring.  Every  one  indeed 
is  not  an  atheist  who  wishes  to  be  so.  And  many 
who  would  fain  persuade  the  world  that  they  are 
heroes  of  this  description,  are  no  more  to  be  credited 
than  the  coward  who,  in  the  absence  of  the  foe,  boasts 
of  his  bravery.  But  absolute  atheism  is  no  man  o'f 
straw  that  controversialists  have  set  up  in  order  that 
they  might  knock  him  down.  It  is  an  embodied 
breathing  reality.  And  however  much  violence  may 
be  implied  in  freeing  the  mind  of  a  belief  in  God,  in 
thwarting  and  repressing  those  moral  instincts  which 
naturally  go  out  thither  and  rest  in  that  faith,  and  in 
falsifying  all  the  signs  palpably  marked  on  the  shining 
heavens  and  the  green  earth,  which  have  spoken  from 
the  beginning  to  the  philosopher  and  the  peasant  of  a 
supreme  presiding  intelligence,  the  violence  in  not  a 
few  instances  has  been  done. 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE   EXISTENCE.  21 

111  some  minds  of  a  philosophic  cast  the  work  has 
proceeded  with  something  like  system  and  deliberation. 
From  one  or  two  principles,  which  in  their  fondness 
they  no  more  thought  of  doubting  than  axioms  in 
mathematics,  they  have  wrought  out,  through  a  series 
of  inevitable  developments,  an  independent  universe, 
governed  exclusively  by  mechanical  laws,  the  lawgiver 
being  fate  or  necessity,  or  some  other  equally  vague 
and  unintelligible  name.  In  other  minds  less  accus- 
tomed to  scale  the  heavens  and  traverse  the  fields  of 
space,  the  consummation  has  been  reached  by  a  felt 
necessity  of  advancing  after  having  thrown  off  religious 
restraints ;  just  as  some  people  are  necessitated  to  do 
a  second  wrong  action  because  they  have  done  the  first, 
to  do  a  third  because  they  have  done  the  second,  and 
so  on  until  the  character  for  daring  has  been  stereo- 
typed into  something  like  the  shape  of  an  indomitable 
hero.  And  never  but  in  the  whirlpool  of  revolutionary 
frenzy,  or  in  such  circumstances  as  to  be  at  once  the 
cause  and  effect  of  the  corruption  of  a  state,  has 
atheism  been  boldly  adopted  and  acted  upon  by  the 
masses  of  a  nation.  A  Diagoras,  a  Bion,  and  a  Lucian, 
are  marked  out  from  among  the  minds  of  the  ancient 
world  as  having  made  this  unenviable  attainment. 
The  men  of  Athens  were  wont  to  banish  from  theii 
city  the  solitary  sceptic  that  now  and  then  appeared, 
and  dared  even  to  doubt  the  existence  of  a  supreme 
intelligence.  Ancient  Rome,  we  know,  had  passed 
the  climax  of  her  glory  before  atheism  obtained  any 
hold  of  the  public  mind,  and  its  prevalence  was 
followed  by  such  a  course  of  degeneracy,  oppression, 


22  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

and  bloodshed,  as  makes  the  reader  of  her  history  even 
now  tremble ;  the  age  of  Pericles  among  the  Greeks 
and  the  age  of  Augustus  among  the  Romans  had  de- 
parted, and  in  the  deluge  of  depravity  that  in  either 
case  set  in  the  monster  abounded.  But  never  was 
atheism,  whether  of  a  philosophical  or  political  kind, 
more  boldly  manifested  than  in  the  history  of  modern 
Europe.  During  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century, 
the  religious  world  had  to  contend  not  only  with  a 
stupid  deism  but  with  the  abettors  of  an  undisguised 
atheism.  The  very  first  principle  of  natural  religion 
was  avowedly  rejected  and  stoutly  contended  for. 
Sensationalism  reached  its  culminating  point.  The 
materialistic  school  of  France  sent  forth  an  infidel 
science  and  literature  of  the  broadest  stamp,  and  that 
school  had  its  disciples  in  many  lands.  In  the  "Sys- 
teme  de  la  Nature,"  the  celebrated  work  of  Baron 
d'Holbach,  the  most  absolute  atheism  is  asserted  as 
openly  as  the  existence  of  God  is  maintained  in  any 
of  our  treatises  on  natural  theology.  "  The  grand 
object  of  the  book,"  to  use  the  language  of  Lord 
Brougham,  "  being  to  show  that  there  is  no  God,  the 
author  begins  by  endeavoring  to  establish  the  most 
rigorous  materialism,  by  trying  to  show  that  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  mind — nothing  beyond  or  difi'erent 
from  the  material  world."  ^  This  work,  full  though  it  be 
of  gratuitous  assumptions  and  inconclusive  reasoning, 
was  well  fitted,  as  Br.  Chalmers  speaking  from  his 
own    experience   once   remarked,    "  by   its   gorgeous 

'  Discourse  of  Natural  Theology,  p.  172. 


THE   DENIAL    OF   THE   DIVINE   EXISTENCE.  23 

generalizations  on  nature  and  truth  and  the  universe, 
to  make  tremendous  impression  on  the  unpractised 
reader."^  The  French  Encyclopsedia  of  sciences, 
which  numbered  among  its  contributors  some  of  the 
most  brilliant  writers  of  the  age,  was  avowedly  a  work 
of  atheism.  Matter  and  its  laws  became  the  engross- 
ing subjects  of  investigation,  the  existence  of  God  was 
treated  as  the  fiction  of  an  overcredulous  age,  and 
man  was  regarded  as  but  an  organized  animal,  the 
offspring  of  chance,  the  sport  of  fate,  and  whose  end 
is  annihilation.  The  great  work  of  Auguste  Comte, 
which  has  obtained  for  him  a  wide  reputation,  is  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  recent  productions  of  the  same 
school.  It  is  a  system  of  huge  materialism  which 
"records  the  dread  sentiment,  that  the  universe  dis- 
plays no  proofs  of  an  all-directing  mind,  and  records 
it  too  as  the  deduction  of  unbiassed  reason."  New^ 
ton,  Kepler,  and  others  of  the  greatest  discoverers  in 
science,  have  risen  from  nature  up  to  nature's  God, 
and  had  their  minds  filled  with  religious  emotion 
when  exploring  the  earth  and  the  heavens,  but  the 
disciples  of  the  school  to  which  we  have  referred, 
brilliant  though  their  reputation  be  in  the  depart- 
ments of  physical  research,  have  presented  to  the 
world  productions  of  their  genius  which  must  bear 
the  broad  brand  of  atheism. 

What  has  been  too  truly  called  the  Eeign  of  Terror, 
in  France,  was  avowedly  the  reign  of  the  most  abso- 
lute  atheism.      Infidelity  then    assumed    its    boldest 

^  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  i.  p.  45. 


24  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

front  and  lifted  up  its  loudest  voice,  and  it  found  an 
echo  in  some  parts  of  our  own  land.  "  I  frankly  con- 
fess tliat  I  am  an  atheist,"  said  one  of  the  members  of 
the  French  convention  in  a  deliberative  assembly  of 
his  countrymen ;  and  though  the  declaration  startled 
multitudes  by  its  daring,  yet  voices  were  not  wanting 
in  that  assembly  to  cry  out,  ''  You  are  an  honest  man." 
The  Revolutionary  leaders,  in  the  height  of  their  im- 
piety, not  only  sought  to  destroy  every  vestige  of 
Christianity  by  abolishing  the  sabbath,  altering  the 
calendar,  plundering  and  shutting  up,  or  converting 
into  warehouses,  the  various  churches ;  but  in  the 
climax  of  their  guilt,  they  brought  the  convention  to 
yield  to  the  cry  that  the  era  had  come  when  men 
should  cease  to  fear  the  Eternal,  and,  in  the  person 
of  a  strumpet,  enthroned  with  heathen  orgies  the 
goddess  of  Eeason  as  the  object  of  national  worship. 
France  thus  presented  to  the  world  the  singular  and 
appalling  spectacle  of  a  refined  and  civilized  nation 
openly  declaring  that  there  is  no  God,  proscribing  all 
the  acts  of  religious  homage,  and  inscribing  on  the 
entrance  to  the  sepulchre  that  death  is  an  eternal 
sleep.  "  This,"  as  Robert  Hall  remarks,  "  is  the  first 
attempt  which  has  ever  been  witnessed,  on  an  exten- 
sive scale,  to  establish  the  prmctjoles  of  atheism ;  the 
first  effort  which  history  has  recorded  to  disannul  and 
extinguish  the  belief  of  all  superior  powers."  It  had 
been  a  matter  of  dispute  in  former  ages  whether  a 
community  leavened  throughout  with  atheistical  prin- 
ciples  could  possibly  subsist.  No  great  powers  of 
reasoning  were  requisite   to   show  that,   abstractedly 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE. 

considered,  the  thing  is  impossible.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  see  the  ocean  shifting  its  bed  or  rapidly  advanc- 
ing beyond  its  ancient  limits,  to  feel  persuaded  that 
were  it  to  do  so,  it  would  carry  a  sweeping  devastation 
into  the  towns  and  villages  that  skirt  the  shore. 
Let  the  throne  in  the  heavens  be  declared  vacant,  and 
proclamation  be  made  throughout  the  land  that  there 
is  no  God,  and  society  is  reft  of  all  its  safeguards, 
crime  is  committed  without  dread  of  punishment,  and 
the  vilest  passions  of  the  vilest  men  rush  onward 
without  restraint.  For  how  utterly  feeble  is  the  check 
imposed  by  human  laws  when,  by  denying  the  Divine 
existence,  they  have  succeeded  in  exploding  the  law 
of  God.  But  the  bad  pre-eminence  was  reserved  for 
modern  France,  to  teach  in  a  palpable  form  the  awful 
lesson  that  when  the  Ruler  among  the  nations  is 
openly  disowned,  the  foundations  of  the  earth  are  out 
of  course,  the  bonds  of  society  are  dissolved,  human 
life  is  accounted  cheap  and  wantonly  sacrificed,  and 
the  most  horrid  deeds  are  perpetrated  under  the 
sacred  name  of  liberty.  It  was  "  a  grand  experiment 
on  human  nature."  Atheism  had  never  been  tried 
on  such  an  extensive  scale  before.  And  it  was  seen 
and  felt  that  nations,  like  individuals,  cannot  be  pros- 
perous and  safe,  enjoy  liberty  and  be  at  peace,  with- 
out acknowledging  the  living  and  true  God.  France 
was  like  a  troubled  sea,  a  sea  of  blood,  under  the 
reign  of  atheism.  The  people  at  last  recoiled  from 
the  impious  and  horrid  system.  And  the  same  con- 
vention which  had  publicly  disowned  the  Most  High 
and  proclaimed  death  to  be  an  eternal  sleep,  was  con- 


26  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

strained  to  recognize  by  enactment  tlie  existence  of 
God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and,  by  an  im- 
pious festival,  professedly  to  restore  the  Eternal  to  the 
nation's  faith  and  homage.  "Vengeance  belongeth 
unto  me,  I  will  recopipense,  saith  the  Lord."  "  The 
republic  of  these  men  without  a  God,"  remarks  La- 
martine,  "was  quickly  stranded."  Europe  has  never 
witnessed  the  reign  of  such  a  bold  and  undisguised 
atheism  since,  and  in  all  probability  never  will. 

Infidel  opinions,  monstrous  and  many-shaped 
enough,  are  ever  and  anon  thrown  up  amid  the 
heavings  of  restless  humanity,  the  natural  tendency 
of  which  is  to  lead  men  to  look  up  to  a  vacant  heaven 
and  down  to  the  dreary  gulf,  from  which,  however, 
they  instinctively  shrink  back,  and  of  such  opinions 
no  age  was,  perhaps,  ever  more  rife  than  our  own. 
Views  of  a  Supreme  Power,  of  human  nature,  and  of 
the  material  world,  are  emanating  from  the  schools 
and  being  diffused  throughout  the  mass  of  society, 
which  are  unquestionably  atheistical  in  their  lean- 
ings. But  there  is  no  broad  surface  of  humanity  on 
which  we  can  look  and  say,  there  is  atheism  absolute 
and  undisguised.  Infidelity  and  atheism  are  not 
convertible  terms.  Atheism  is  the  worst  form,  the 
ultimate  bond  of  infidelity,  but  all  infidelity  is  not 
atheism.  The  one  is,  comparatively,  a  strange  phe- 
nomenon, the  other  is  ever  floating  in  innumerable 
shapes  on  the  surface  of  society  as  well  as  pervading, 
like  leaven,  the  mass.  Men  in  general  will  worship. 
They  are  naturally  led  to  recognize  a  Supreme  Being, 
even    though   he   may   possess    in    their    imaginings 


THE    DENIAL    OF   THE   DIVINE   EXISTENCE.  27 

none  of  the  attributes  and  characteristics  of  the  God 
of  the  Bible.  We  would  in  nowise  be  indulgent  to 
the  many  adverse  speculations  respecting  the  Divine 
Being  which  are  afloat  in  their  subtle  and  philosophic 
form,  or  which  are  popularized  so  as  to  meet  the 
capacities  of  the  multitude,  speculations  which  are 
dishonoring  to  God  and  virtually  deny  Him.  But 
we  would  distinguish  between  the  man  who  believes 
in  the  existence  of  a  great  First  Cause,  though  hold- 
ing opinions  that  rob  Him  of  his  glory,  and  the 
man  who  openly  avows  that  there  is  no  God,  and 
denounces  the  belief  in  Him  as  a  mere  chimera  of 
the  understanding.  A  hypothesis  may  be  atheistical 
in  its  bearings  and  yet  its  assertor  may  be  no  theo- 
retical atheist.  His  theism,  dissociated  from  other 
important  beliefs,  may  be  of  no  moral  worth  whatever, 
and  in  the  scriptural  sense  of  the  expression  he  may 
be  without  God  in  the  world,  yet  so  long  as  positive 
atheism  is  not  involved  in  his  philosophical  creed, 
and  he  professes  to  have  faith  in  God,  it  were  unjust 
to  place  him  at  the  bound  which  he  has  not  yet 
reached  and  write  tim  down  atheist.  Mr.  Hugh 
Miller  justly  remarks  of  the  development  hypothesis 
of  Maillet  and  Lamarck,  that  there  is  no  positive 
atheism  involved  in  it.  "  God  might  as  certainly  have 
originated  the  species  by  a  law  of  development,  as  he 
maintains  it  by  a  'law  of  development ;  the  existence 
of  a  first  great  Cause  is  as  perfectly  compatible  with 
the  one  scheme  as  with  the  other.  "^    If  it  were  a 

'  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  p.  1 4. 


28  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

question  of  moral  influence,  and  not  of  dogmatical 
opinion,  we  might  merge  such  simple  theism  in  athe- 
ism, for,  as  the  author  of  the  "Footprints"  observes, 
"  without  a  belief  in  the  immortality  and  responsi- 
bility of  man,  and  in  the  scheme  of  salvation  by  a 
Mediator  and  Redeemer,  a  belief  in  the  existence  of 
a  6rod  is  as  of  little  ethical  value  as  a  belief  in  the 
existence  of  the  great  sea-serpent."  But  it  is  with 
men's  creed,  not  their  practice,  that  we  have  at  pre- 
sent to  do.  And  men  may  be  living  without  God 
in  the  world,  and  yet  hold  that  there  is  a  God  in  the 
heavens.  It  is  the  man  who  disowns  God,  who  theo- 
retically and  practically  denies  his  existence,  that 
bears  on  his  brow  the  self-inflicted  brand,  "  I  am  an 
atheist."  Our  own  age  does  not  lack  such  daring 
mortals ;  they  may  be  found  here  and  there  in  the 
schools,  and  in  the  workshops,  wielding  the  press,  oi 
spouting  from  the  rostrum,  or  taking  up  the  gauntlet 
on  the  platform,  but,  in  general,  the  mass  of  society 
which  is>not  Christian  is  infidel  rather  than  atheistical. 
Comparatively  few  are  so  foolhardy  as  to  maintain 
that  there  is  no  God,  though  vast  multitudes  are  fool- 
hardy enough  to  deprive  Him  of  all  His  distinguishing 
glory  while  professing  to  acknowledge  his  existence. 
Atheism,  however,  is  a  fact  in  human  society,  and 
more  or  less  prevalent  in  every  age,  and  must  be 
numbered  as  one  and  the  grossest  of  the  forms  of 
infidelity. 

'  As  to  tlie  general  character  of  the  atheism  among  the  peoj^le,  we 
here  adduce  two  competent  witnesses.  Dr.  Krummacher,  in  his 
Alliance  Paper  on  Infidelity  in  Grermany,  remarks,  "  that  Atheism 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  29 

In  atheism  the  negation  of  infidelity  is  complete. 
Now,  before  noticing  the  positive  proof  for  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  there  is  an  initial  consideration,  of 
some  importance  to  the  argument,  which  must  be 
adverted  to.  We  allude  to  the  immense  knowledge 
requisite  in  certain  cases  to  establish  a  negative. 
Evidence  may  be  adduced  at  once  to  show  that  such 
a  thing  is,  or  that  such  a  thing  has  been  done,  while 
the  negation  of  this  may  demand  a  surprising  amount 
of  research  and  experience.  An  individual,  for  ex- 
ample, cast  upon  what  seemed  to  be  a  desert  island, 
might  affirm  that  it  was,  or  lately  had  been,  inhabited, 
and  in  proof  of  this  he  would  need  only  to  point  to 
the  human  footprint  on  the  sand.  One  such  mark 
would  of  itself  be  sufficient  to  make  good  the  affirma- 
tion. But  were  the  companion  of  his  misfortune  to 
contend  that  the  island  Avas  uninhabited,  and  that  no 
traces  of  a  human  being  having  ever  been  there  could 
be  found,  it  is  very  obvious  that  the  proof  of  this 
negative    assertion    would    be    attended   with   much 

in  the  lower  classes  appears  as  a  plant,  proceeding  more  from 
political  interest,  than  as  a  proof  proceeding  from  a  clear  self- 
judgment.  Religion  is  looked  upon  as  an  invention  to  press  down 
the  people."  Mr.  Vanderkiste,  in  his  deeply  interesting  "  Notes 
and  Narratives  of  a  Six  Years'  Mission  among  the  Dens  of  London," 
says :  "  the  so-called  atheists  with  whom  I  have  met,  have  proved, 
with  few  exceptions,  upon  being  closely  questioned,  not  really 
to  be  atheists  at  all.  They  have  admitted  some  causation,  and 
when  closely  pressed  upon  the  subject  of  intelligent  causation, 
and  required  to  define  terms,  they  have  fairly  broken  down,  and 
become  angry.  Atheism  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  desperate  shift  of 
an  ill-regulated  mind,  determined  to  rid  itself  of  responsibility  at 
the  expense  of  all  reason  and  argument." 


30  atheism;  or, 

greater  difficulty.  In  the  one  case,  the  single  human 
footmark  fresh  upon  the  soil  would  be  proof  sufficient. 
In  the  other  case  it  would  be  necessary  to  explore 
the  whole  region,  to  examine  carefully  every  cavern 
and  locality,  before  the  negative  proposition  could  be 
substantiated.  The  one  clear  print  of  a  man's  foot 
would  prove  that  man  was,  or  had  been,  in  the  island, 
but  it  would  be  requisite  to  see  that  no  human  foot- 
print was  visible  throughout  its  entire  length  and 
breadth,  that  no  vestige  of  a  human  inhabitant  could 
be  discovered,  before  an  individual  would  be  entitled 
to  say,  that  no  man  was  or  ever  had  been  there.  And 
the  difficulty  of  making  good  the  negative  would  in- 
crease with  the  enlargement  of  the  country  and  the 
number  and  size  of  the  localities  to  be  gone  over. 

The  same  principle  holds  with  regard  to  extent 
of  time  as  to  extent  of  space.  Let  it  be  affirmed  of 
the  British  monarch  that,  on  a  certain  occasion,  she 
entered,  in  the  most  unostentatious  manner,  into  a  pooi 
cottage  and  relieved  with  her  own  hands  a  suffering 
family.  Nothing  more  would  be  requisite  to  sub- 
stantiate the  affirmation  than  the  honest  testimony 
of  the  favored  cottagers  or  the  truthful  word  of  some 
competent  witnesses.  But  let  the  negative  statement 
be  made,  that  the  monarch  never  entered  such  a 
humble  abode,  and  never  administered  relief  in  such  a 
way,  and  it  is  obvious  that  very  much  is  necessary  to 
make  the  statement  good.  No  one  would  be  war- 
ranted to  utter  such  a  negative,  but  an  individual 
who  had  closely  followed  the  monarch  through  every 
path  and  winding  which  she  took  in  private  life,  oi 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  31 

who  was,  in  some  way  or  another,  cognizant  of  all  her 
out-door  movements  throughout  every  day  of  every 
year  since  she  ascended  the  throne.  Did  the  indi- 
vidual's experience  extend  so  far  as  three  hundred 
and  sixty-four  days  of  a  given  year  and  no  farther,  for 
aught  he  knew,  the  condescension  might  have  been 
manifested  and  the  good  deed  performed  on  the  very 
day  to  which  his  knowledge  did  not  reach.  The  dif- 
ficulty of  establishing  the  negative  would  increase  as 
the  time  extended  to  the  whole  reign,  and  it  would 
be  absolutely  insurmountable  when  made  to  embrace 
not  only  a  particular  monarch  but  all  the  sovereigns 
that  ever  sat  on  the  British  throne.  Even  in  the 
absence  of  all  proof  to  the  contrary,  what  an  amount 
of  presumption  would  be  implied  in  saying  that  no 
English  monarch  ever  entered  an  humble  dwelling, 
and  did  a  benevolent  act  to  its  poor  inmates,  but  the 
arrogance  would  be  complete  if  the  statement  was 
made  in  defiance  of  one  or  more  well-authenticated 
instances  of  such  benignant  doings  in  the  annals  of 
English  royalty. 

These  remarks  will  enable  us  to  see  what  extraor- 
dinary attainments  must  have  been  made  before  an 
individual  would  be  entitled  to  say.  There  is  no  God. 
It  is  a  negative  proposition  which  no  finite  mind  can 
enunciate  without  being  guilty  of  the  most  astounding 
presumption ;  and  the  man  would  only  betray  his  folly 
who  should  attempt  to  demonstrate  it.  The  sceptic 
may  express  his  doubts  of  the  Divine  existence  and 
give  reasons  for  his  doubting,  but  beyond  this,  scep- 
ticism can  achieve  nothing.     In  order  to  substantiate 


32  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

the  affirmative  proposition,  that  there  is  a  God, 
nothing  more  might  be  necessary  than  to  point  to 
some  of  the  footprints  of  the  Creator  which  are 
visible  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  If  there  be  a 
God,  only  a  very  small  amount  of  knowledge  and 
experience  would  be  requisite  to  prove  it.  The  evi- 
dence might  lie,  as  we  say  that  it  does  lie,  in  a  flower 
of  the  field,  in  a  leaf  of  the  forest,  in  a  single  hand, 
or  in  a  single  eye.  But  the  negative  proposition 
could  be  substantiated  within  no  such  compass. 
Even  were  there  no  indications  of  the  Creator  in  that 
wondrous  microcosm  the  human  eye,  or  in  the  waving 
leaf,  or  in  the  blooming  flower,  still  it  were  an  illegiti- 
mate inference  and  a  manifestation  of  high  presump- 
tion to  conclude  that  there  is  no  God.  He  must 
needs  have  traversed  not  only  every  part  of  "  this  dim 
spot  which  men  call  earth,"  but  he  must  have  wan- 
dered from  star  to  star,  made  himself  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  all  worlds,  have  searched  into  the 
records  of  all  ages,  and  have  found  throughout  all 
space  and  all  time  no  evidence  for  design,  before  an 
individual  could  be  entitled  to  say  that  the  universe 
is  without  a  God.  This  idea  is  forcibly  expressed  by 
John  Foster,^  and  eloquently  illustrated  by  Dr.  Chal- 
mers." "  The  wonder  then  turns,"  says  the  original 
minded  author  of  the  Essays,  "  on  the  great  process, 
b^  which  a  man  could  grow  to  the  immense  intelli- 
gence which  can  know  that  there  is  no  God.  What 
ages   and  what   lights    are   requisite   for   this   attain- 

'  Essays,  IStli  eel.,  p.  35.     "  Institutes  of  Theology,  vol.  i.  p.  63. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    EXISTENCE,  33 

ment !  This  intelligence  involves  the  very  attributes 
of  Divinity,  while  a  God  is  denied.  For  unless  this 
man  is  omnipresent,  unless  he  is  at  this  moment  in 
every  place  in  the  universe,  he  cannot  know  but  there 
may  be  in  some  place  manifestations  of  a  Deity,  by 
which  even  lie  would  be  overpowered.  If  he  does 
not  know  absolutely  every  agent  in  the  universe,  the 
one  that  he  does  not  know  may  be  God.  If  he  is  not 
himself  the  chief  agent  in  the  universe,  and  does  not 
know  what  is  so,  that  which  is  so  may  be  God.  If 
he  is  not  in  absolute  possession  of  all  the  propositions 
that  constitute  universal  truth,  the  one  which  he 
wants  may  be,  that  there  is  a  God.  If  he  cannot 
with  certainty  assign  the  cause  of  all  that  he  perceives 
to  exist,  that  cause  may  be  God.  If  he  does  not 
know  everything  that  has  been  done  in  the  immeas- 
urable ages  that  are  past,  some  things  may  have 
been  done  by  a  God.  Thus,  unless  he  knows  all 
things,  that  is,  precludes  all  other  divine  existence  by 
being  Deity  himself,  he  cannot  know  that  the  Being 
whose  existence  he  rejects,  does  not  exist.  But  he 
must  know  that  he  does  not  exist,  else  he  deserves 
equal  contempt  and  compassion  for  the  temerity  with 
which  he  firmly  avows  his  rejection  and  acts  accord- 
ingly." Atheism  is  thus  shown,  at  the  very  outset,  to 
be  illogical  and  to  rest  on  a  monstrous  assumption, 
so  that  we  are  prepared  to  welcome  whatever  evi- 
dences offer  themselves  for  the  truth  of  the  proposition 
that  there  is  a  God. 

3 


34  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

But  not  only  is  tlie  proof  of  the  non-existence  of 
God  an  intellectual  impossibility,  His  existence  is 
felt  to  be  an  intellectual  necessity.  The  mind  of  man 
is  so  constituted  tliat  it  cannot  be  satisfied  without  it, 
and  hence  the  monstrous  violence  done  to  his  intel- 
lectual and  moral  nature  when  he  attempts  to  banish 
from  him  the  idea  of  a  First  Cause.  That  there  must 
be  a  First  Cause,  is  an  axiom  assumed  in  all  our 
reasoning  upward  from  the  phenomena  of  nature  to 
nature's  God.  The  snow  that  is  now  quickly  falling  as 
we  write  these  pages,  the  stormy  wind  that  is  drifting 
that  snow  against  our  windows  and  doors,  are  effects  the 
causes  of  which  we  investigate  and  the  laws  of  which 
we  trace  ;  but  in  our  upward  track  we  are  seeking  after 
a  resting  point,  we  come  to  the  last  link  in  the  chain 
of  material  causation,  and  from  the  very  constitution 
of  our  minds  we  repose  in  a  cause  essentially  different 
from  all  others,  which  is  the  I  Am,  the  self-existent 
and  independent  God.  The  idea  of  a  great  First 
Cause  is  not  derived  originally  from  me  phenomena 
of  nature  around  us,  but  assumed  in  our  investiga- 
tions into  these  phenomena.  It  is  an  axiomatic  truth 
which  every  sound  reasoner  carries  along  with  him  in 
his  ascent  from  effects  to  their  apparent  causes,  and 
to  which  the  mind  from  a  felt  necessity  fully  sur- 
renders itself  when  it  has  reached  the  last  link  in  the 
phenomena  of  nature.  The  Greek  logician  has  said, 
"  all  that  moves  refers  us  to  a  mover,  and  it  were  only 
an  endless  adjournment  of  causes  were  there  not  a 
primary  immovable  Mover."  Such  an  endless  ad- 
journment of  causes  can  never  be  resorted  to  with- 


THE    DENIAL    OF   THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  35 

out  doing  great  violence  to  our  mental  constitution, 
and  forcibly  thwarting  its  natural  tendencies.  It  is 
just  a  perpetual  armed  attempt  to  thrust  the  mind 
away  from  the  rest  to  which,  from  the  law  of  its  being, 
it  is  ever  aspiring.  "  Our  minds  cannot  be  satisfied," 
remarks  Professor  WhewelV  "with  a  series  of  succes- 
sive, dependent  causes  and  effects,  without  something 
first  and  independent.  We  pass  from  effect  to  cause, 
and  from  that  to  a  higher  cause,  in  search  of  some- 
thins-  on  which  the  mind  can  rest ;  but  if  we  can  do 
nothing  but  repeat  this  process,  there  is  no  use  in  it. 
We  move  our  limbs  but  make  no  advance.  Our  ques- 
tion is  not  answered  but  evaded.  The  mind  cannot 
acquiesce  in  the  destiny  thus  presented  to  it,  of  being 
referred  from  event  to  event,  from  object  to  object, 
along  an  interminable  vista  of  causation  and  time. 
Now,  this  mode  of  stating  the  reply, — to  say  that  the 
mind  cannot  thus  he  satisfied^  appears  to  be  equivalent 
to  saying  that  the  mind  is  conscious  of  a  principle  in 
virtue  of  which  such  a  view  as  this  must  be  rejected; 
— the  mind  takes  refuge  in  the  assumption  of  a  First 
Cause,  from  an  employment  inconsistent  with  its  own 
nature."  "That  First  Cause,  indeed,"  observes  Dr. 
Harris,-  "  must  be  immensely  different,  both  in  rank 
and  in  nature^  from  the  subordinate  physical  causes  to 
which  it  has  imparted  motion  ;  but  still  the  mind 
feels  the  necessity  for  such  a  cause  with  all  the  force 
of  an  intellectual  instinct.     The  mind  was  constituted 

'  Indications  of  the  Creator,  2d  ed.,  p.  198-9, 
^  Pro-x\damite  Earth,  p.  151. 


36  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

to  feel  this  necessity,  and  thus  to  supply  the  last  link 
in  the  chain  of  reasoning  from  itself,  as  much  as  it 
v^as  made  and  meant  to  find  the  preceding  links  in 
the  phenomena  of  nature." 

Having  thus  glanced  at  the  intellectual  impossi- 
bility involved  in  the  negative  proposition  that  there  is 
no  God,  and  at  the  intellectual  necessity  for  the  axiom 
that  there  must  be  a  First  Cause,  we  are  prepared  to 
consider  the  real  value  of  the  arguments  a  'priori  and 
a  posteriori.  And  we  cannot  help  remarking,  at  the 
outset,  that  too  exclusive  an  importance  has  been 
attached  to  each  of  these  celebrated  forms  of  proof, 
as  if  the  one  were  absolutely  independent  of  the  other. 
The  two,  in  a  great  measure,  go  hand  in  hand,  and 
conduct  us  to  the  position  that  there  is  a  God,  the 
Great  Creator  and  Parent  of  the  universe.  The  a  priori 
mode  of  reasoning  is  the  exclusive  idol  of  many  of 
the  German  logicians,  they  have  an  utter  contempt 
for  our  inductive  philosophy  and  matter-of-fact  the- 
ology. Experience,  the  great  teacher,  is  professedly 
ignored  in  their  argumentation,  the  world  with  all  its 
palpable  realities  is  shut  out,  and  from  mere  mental 
abstractions  they  evolve  all  existences  and  all  truth. 
But  in  their  hands  this  kind  of  reasoning  has  com- 
pletely failed.  It  conducts  the  mind  to  no  firm  resting- 
place.  It  bewilders,  instead  of  elucidating,  our  notions 
of  God,  of  man,  and  the  universe.  It  gives  us  no  divine 
personal  existence,  and  leaves  us  floating  in  a  region  of 
mere  vague  abstractions.  Such  reasonings  are  either 
altogether  vain,  or  are  not  really  what  they  profess  to  be. 

In  our  country  the  name  of  Dr.  Clarke  is  chiefly 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  37 

associated  with  the  a  priori  argument.  He  and  many- 
others  attached  to  it  an  immense  importance.  But 
however  highly  extolled  in  past  times,  and  worthy 
to  be  admired  as  a  specimen  of  intellect,  it  is  now 
generally  set  aside  as  insufficient  of  itself  to  de- 
monstrate the  Being  and  Attributes  of  God.  Clarke 
himself  found  it  necessary  to  stoop  to  the  argument 
a  ]Josteriori^  and  thereby  acknowledged  the  failure  of 
attempting  to  reason  exclusively  a  priori.  In  ex- 
amining his  celebrated  demonstration,  it  is  found 
to  be  really  inductive,  and  not  wholly  independent  of 
experience  as  supposed.  Our  conception  of  a  First 
Cause  is  not  indeed  derived  from  experience,  for  it  is 
felt  to  be  an  intellectual  necessity,  but  experience  is 
necessary  to  its  development.  The  very  first  proposi- 
tion, that  something  must  have  existed  from  eternity, 
since  it  assumes  that  something  exists,  is  a  posteriori. 
And  in  order  to  prove  that  this  eternal  something  is 
not  "  a  blind  and  unintelligent  necessity,  but  in  the 
most  proper  sense  an  understanding  and  really  active 
being,"  in  which,  as  he  well  says,  "  lies  the  main 
question  between  us  and  the  atheists,"  he  resorts  to 
the  world  with  its  orderly  arrangements,  and  on  the 
ground  of  fact  and  experience  builds  up  his  argument.^ 
The  fate  of  Dr.  Clarke's  pretended  demonstration, 
and  the  result,  in  so  far  as  theology  is  concerned,  of 
the  transcendental  reasoning  of  the  continental  phi- 
losophers, show  the  futility  of  attempting  to  rise  up 
to  the  height  of  the  great  argument  for  the  existence 
of  God  on  the  a  priori  method  alone. 

'  Clarke's  Discourse,  Prop.  viii. 


38  atheism;  or, 

The  old  a  posteriori  argument,  while  decried  by  the 
German  logicians  on  the  one  hand,  has,  it  must  be 
confessed,  been  invested  with  too  exclusive  an  import- 
ance by  some  of  our  own  theologians  on  the  other. 
It  is  necessarily  limited  in  its  range.  It  carries  us 
upward  from  effects  to  causes,  from  the  evidences  of 
design  to  a  designer,  but  it  cannot  of  itself  carry  us 
to  the  throne  of  the  Eternal,  who  is  uncaused  and 
the  cause  of  all.  We  cannot,  by  a  strict  process  of 
inductive  reasoning,  infer  from  one  or  more  finite, 
effects  that  the  cause  of  them  is  absolutely  infinite. 
Design  proves  a  designer,  but  it  does  not  prove  that 
the  designer  is  God.  The  argument  from  external 
and  visible  nature  leads  the  way,  but,  unaided  by 
other  proofs  or  conceptions,  would  never  conduct  us 
to  the  I  AM  THAT  I  AM.  The  marks  of  contrivance 
which  are  so  palpable  in  every  thing  we  see  in  the 
fields  of  creation  give  us  the  logical  conclusion  that 
everything  has  had  a  contriver.  They  give  us  also 
the  idea  of  great  wisdom  and  goodness  and  power, 
but  of  themselves  they  do  not  give  us  the  proof  of  a 
Being  possessed  of  infinite  and  absolute  perfections. 
The  argument  points,  like  a  finger-post,  in  that 
direction,  but,  strictly  speaking,  we  leave  the  argu- 
ment or  it  leaves  us,  and  we  resign  ourselves  to  the 
necessary  conviction  that  there  is  a  Great  First 
Designer  and  that  he  is  God.  There  is  nothing  elabo- 
rate in  the  process.  It  is  simpler  and  easier  than 
the  simplest  step.  From  effects  we  ascend  naturally 
to  causes,  from  subordinate  laws  we  rise  up  to  the 
highest  law ;    but  when  the  inductive  philosophy  has 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  39 

carried  us  easily  up,  and  placed  us  as  it  were  on  the 
highest  point  in  the  series   of  material   causation,  it 
has   not   given   us  the  great  First  Intelligent  Cause. 
Tt  has,  however,  conducted  us  so  far  that,  by  our  very 
mental  constitution,  we  repose  in  the  conviction  that 
beyond  the   series   of   mere    mechanical    causes  and 
effects,  is  the  Infinite  Cause  of  all.     Sir  Isaac  Newton 
has   truly   said,    "though   every   step    made    in    this 
philosophy  brings  us  not  immediately  to  the  knowledge 
of  the   First   Cause,  yet  it   brings  us  nearer   to  it." 
Let   the   chain   of  material   causation   be   lengthened 
out  ever  so  far,  we  only  feel  however  at  the  topmost 
link,  what   is   felt   throughout    all    the    lower    links, 
the  necessity   of  a  cause   above  all  others  in   nature 
and  rank,  a   cause   uncaused   and  the   cause   of    all. 
Induction  points  to  this,  but  it  does  not  give  it.     Call 
it   an   intuitive   sentiment,   a  primitive  judgment,  an 
intellectual  necessity,  or  what   you  will,  the  mind  is 
so  constituted  as  in  the  reasoning   process  to  supply 
it  and  rest  in  it.     The  starting-point  of  the  a  posteriori 
argument,  which  is  the  idea  of  design  or  causality,  is 
an  a  ^priori  belief,  and   from  the  argument  itself  we 
pass  necessarily  to  the  conviction  that  there  is  a  First 
Cause,   differing    essentially   from    all    others,    whose 
name  is  God.     So  that  it  is  vain  to  assert  an  exclu- 
sive claim  for  either  argument,  since  they  involve  and 
aid  each  other.  ^ 

*  The  Atheist,  in  availing  himself  of  the  exclusive  importance 
attached  to  the  a  posteriori  argument,  thus  reasons :  "  if  design  implies 
a  designer,  contrivance  a  contriver,  nature's  contriver  must  have 
been  himself  contrived."     The  monstrous  assumption,  out  of  which 


40  atheism;  or, 

The  exclusive  claim  for  either  of  these  arguments 
being  disposed  of,  we  are  prepared  to  notice  the 
indications  of  the  Creator  that  lie  without  the  field  of 
revealed  truth.  And  here  we  avail  ourselves  of  the 
rich  contributions  in  the  way  of  proof,  which  are  fur- 
nished by  the  phenomena  both  of  matter  and  mind; 
and  in  doing  so,  we  repudiate  neither  argument,  but 
make  use  of  both.  The  plain  way  in  which  men  have 
reasoned  from  the  beginning,  is  upwards  from  the 
evidences  of  design  in  the  material  universe  to  the 
existence  of  the  Great  Designer;  upwards  from  the 
orderly  and  beneficial  dispositions  of  matter  to  the 
Divine  Hand  that  framed  the  whole.  And  this  old 
path  is  the  truest  and  safest  still.  It  has  been 
adorned  by  the  eloquence  of  Cicero  and  Brougham, 
of  Paley,  Chalmers,  and  others.  It  is  the  argu- 
ment of  the  royal  Psalmist :  "  The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  sheweth  his 
handiwork."  Nature  in  all  her  departments  abounds 
in  such  evidences.  The  discoveries  of  physical  science 
only  enlarge  to  our  view  the  vast  magazine  of  contriv- 
ances, all  of  which  point  upward  in  the  direction  of 
the  great  Infinite  Contriver.  And  our  progress  in 
that  direction  is  in  nowise  arrested  by  any  of  the 
liheories  which  profess  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the 
universe,  or  to  give  us  the  beginning  of  its  existing 
motions  and  arrangements.  The  hypothesis  of 
Laplace,   which   has   been   so   much   vaunted   againsi 

arises  this  atheistical  inference,  is,  that  nature's  contriver  has  in  him 
felf  marks  of  design.  This  is  the  reasoning  of  a  man  whose  chief 
distinction  is  that  he  is  editor  of  "  The  Reasoner." 


THE   DENIAL   Of    THE   DIVINE   EXISTENCE.  41 

our  Natural  Theology,  and  which  would  trace  backward 
the  earth  and  the  whole  solar  system  to  an  extremely 
diffused   nebulosity  that   gradually  cooled  down  and 
condensed,  has  been  very  much  discredited  by  recent 
discoveries   of    the   telescope.      But   even   supposing 
that  it  were  verified,  it  would  not  destroy  the  argu- 
ment  for   a   God   derived    from   the   collocations   of 
matter,  nor  prevent  us  from  going   beyond  itself  to 
an   intelligent   First   Cause.     "  Let  it   be   supposed," 
remarks  Professor  WhewelV  "  that  the  point  to  which 
this  hypothesis  leads   us,    is   the   ultimate    point    of 
physical  science ;    that   the   farthest   glimpse  we  can 
obtain  of  the  material  universe  by  our  natural  faculties, 
shows   it   to   us   occupied   by   a  boundless   abyss   of 
luminous  matter ;    still  we  ask,  how  space  came  to  be 
thus  occupied — how  matter  came  to  be  thus  luminous  ? 
If  we  establish  by  physical  proofs,  that  the  first  fact 
which  can  be  traced  in  the  history  of  the  world,  is 
that  there  was  light ;  we  shall  still  be  led,  even  by  our 
natural  reason,  to  suppose  that  before  this  could  occur, 
'  God  said.  Let  there  be  light.'"     It  is  indeed  true,  as 
we  before  hinted,  that  the  experimental  argument  of 
itself  does  not  give  us  an  Infinite  Cause.     But  if  it 
carries  us  to  the  last  link  in  the  chain  which  is  fur 
nished  by  the  phenomena  of  nature,  it  leaves  us  to 
repose,  from  an  intellectual  necessity,  in  the  convic 
tion   that   there  is  an  uncaused   Cause  which  is  the 
cause  of  all.     The  old  assumption  of  an  eternal  suc- 
cession of  finite  beings  was  made  to  get  rid  of  the 

^  Indications  of  the  Creator,  p.  63. 


42  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

idea  of  One  Eternal  Being.     That  the  supposition  is 
unphilosophical  and  absurd  has  been  shown  thousands 
of  times.      The  mind,  from  its  very  constitution,  dis- 
owns it.     Men  may  form  as  many  links  in  the  chain 
of  causes  as  they  choose,  but  they  must,  at  the  last,  reach 
an   uncaused   Cause.      It   is   strictly   true    that    from 
nothing  nothing  can  proceed.     Something  must  have 
existed  before  all  finite  beings,  or  whence  came  these 
finite  beings   into   existence?      That  something  must 
be  self-existent,  underived,  necessary,  and  eternal.     It 
is  He  who  is  the  I  am,  and  to  whom  we  apply  the 
sublime  language  of  the  ancient  seer :     "  Before   the 
mountains   were   brought   forth,   or   ever   thou   hadst 
formed  the  earth  and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting  thou  art  God."     It  matters  not  whether 
it  be  in  the  department  of  zoology,  with  its  two  well- 
established  principles,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
spontaneous   generation,  and   that   there  is  no  trans- 
mutation of  the  species,  or  whether  it  be  in  the  de 
partment  of  a  sublime  and  ever-enlarging  astronomy ; 
it  matters  not  whether  we  extend  our  survey  to  the 
systems  of  suns  that   roll  throughout  the   immensity 
of  space,  or  whether  we  centre  it  on  that  wondrous 
microcosm,  the   human   eye;    we  meet  with  teeming 
evidences   of  design  which  not   only   carry   us   to   a 
designer,  but  hand  us  over,  necessarily,  if  we  may  so 
speak,  to  the  belief  that  the  great  First  Designer  is 
God.      It   is   no    mechanical   necessity  that  we   thus 
reach.     It  is   Jehovah,  the  living,  and  the  life-giving 
One. 

This  argument  has  also  received  increasingly  rich 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE   EXISTENCE.  43 

contributions  from  a  closer  study  of  the  constitution 
of  the  mind,  and  a  more  perfect  analysis  of  its  various 
phenomena.  To  reason  upwards  from  the  laws  of 
our  mental  constitution  to  the  Infinite  Mind,  who  is 
the  Parent  Source  of  the  whole,  is  just  as  experimental, 
(though,  in  neither  case,  dissociated  from  fl  ^norz  be- 
liefs,) as  to  reason  from  material  nature  up  to  nature's 
God.  Some  of  our  popular  writers  on  natural  the- 
ology have  either  entirely  overlooked  the  evidences  of 
design  presented  by  our  mental  constitution,  or  have 
satisfied  themselves  with  merely  adverting  to  them. 
Paley,  who  has  written  so  admirably  on  the  material 
phenomena,  never  once  extends  his  argument  to  the 
intellectual  and  moral.  This  omission  has  been  ac- 
counted for  by  the  astonishing  discoveries  of  physical 
science,  which,  bringing  palpably  into  view  a  vast 
assemblage  of  material  evidences,  have,  for  the  time, 
thrown  into  the  shade  the  proofs  of  the  Divine  exist- 
ence and  character  derived  from  the  mind.  And  yet 
the  field  of  man's  inner  nature  is  as  legitimate  a 
province  of  the  inductive  philosophy  as  the  external 
world  with  its  manifold  organizations,  and  furnishes 
no  less  numerous  and  greatly  more  influential  evi- 
dences of  an  intelligent  Cause.  Lord  Brougham,  in  his 
"  Introductory  Discourse  of  Natural  Theology,"  and  Dr. 
Chalmers,  in  his  "  Institutes,"  have  liberally  supplied 
what,  in  this  department,  was  lacking  in  some  of  our 
older  writers.  The  mind  is  a  created  effect,  and,  like 
matter,  is  a  proper  subject  of  observation.  It  has  its 
own  peculiar  phenomena  and  laws,  which  we  can 
examine,  and,  from  them,  gather  proofs  of  the  Infinite 


44  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

Mind,  whicli  is  the  source  of  all.  Between  it  and 
matter  there  is  a  gulf  fixed.  The  properties  of  the  one 
are  wholly  different  from  the  properties  of  the  other. 
No  combination  of  mechanical  forces  could  ever  pro- 
duce an  intelligent  and  moral  being.  That  mind  is 
a  mere  modification  of  matter,  is  no  less  at  variance 
with  the  inductive  philosophy  than  is  the  exploded  dog- 
ma of  the  transmutation  of  the  species.  Here,  then, 
is  an  effect  endowed  with  intelligence,  reason,  and 
moral  sentiment.  This  effect  must  have  had  a  cause. 
And  on  the  evident  principle  that  no  eff'ect  can  possess 
any  perfection  which  was  not  in  the  cause,  we  natu- 
rally infer  that  the  creator  of  the  human  spirit  is  a 
moral  and  intelligent  being.  This  is  as  much  an 
inductive  process  of  reasoning,  as  the  step  we  take  in 
advancing  from  material  nature  up  to  Him  who  has 
designed  it.  Men  have  reasoned  in  this  simple  way 
from  the  beginning.  "  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall 
he  not  hear  ?  he  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see  ? 
he  that  teacheth  man  knowledge,  shall  not  he  know  ?" 
And  since  there  is  an  intellectual  necessity  for  a  First 
Cause,  himself  uncaused,  and  the  cause  of  all,  his 
seeing  must  be  all-seeing;  his  knowledge  must  be 
omniscience  ;  his  moral  nature  must  be  absolutely 
perfect.  The  most  striking  phenomenon  in  our  men- 
tal constitution  is  conscience,  the  man  within  the 
breast  as  it  has  been  called.  It  sits  enthroned  amid 
the  other  principles  of  our  nature,  and  is  invested  with 
a  rightful  authority  over  them.  Its  voice — the  voice  of 
a  sovereign  judge — is  heard  above  the  tumult  of  pas- 
sion, and  the  rebellious  uproar  of  the  less  noble  pro- 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  45 

pensities.  And  though  its  high  behests  are  not  always 
obeyed,  yet  its  right  to  rule  is  everywhere  acknowl- 
edged. It  is  sovereign  de  jure  even  where  it  is  not 
sovereign  de  facto.  Now  let  it  be  observed,  that  all 
the  authority  of  this  faculty  is  on  the  side  of  right- 
eousness and  truth;  that  it  has  sanctions  for  the  en- 
forcement of  its  utterances  ;  that  it  appipves  the  good, 
and  denounces  the  evil;  and  in  the  righteous  supre- 
macy of  this  part  of  our  nature,  we  have  a  strong 
proof  for  the  existence  of  a  just  and  holy  God.  The 
authority  of  a  law  of  right  and  wrong  in  our  moral 
constitution  implies  a  lawgiver,  the  setting  up  of  a 
tribunal  within  the  breast  points  to  a  yet  higher 
tribunal  in  the  heavens,  and  from  the  felt  presence 
of  a  judge  within  us,  denouncing  wrong,  and  sanc- 
tioning right,  we  infer  the  existence  of  a  righteous 
Judge  over  us,  who  is  at  once  its  Author  and  Lord. 
In  the  supremacy  of  this  moral  principle  we  have 
strong  evidence  not  only  of  an  intelligent  Creator, 
but  of  one  who  is  just  and  true  in  all  his  ways,  and 
holy  in  all  his  works.  "  And  this  theology  of  con- 
science," as  Dr.  Chalmers  remarks,  "  has  done  more 
to  uphold  a  sense  of  God  in  the  world  than  all  the 
theology  of  academic  demonstration."  Conscience, 
however,  though  the  chief,  is  only  a  part  of  our  men- 
tal phenomena.  The  mind  is  replete  with  othei 
evidences  for  the  being  and  character  of  God.  These 
we  do  not  stay  to  illustrate.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  in 
the  intellectual  powers  of  man,  and  their  adaptation 
to  external  nature — an  amazing  assemblage  of  bril- 
liant  and   magnificent  phenomena — in   the  emotional 


46  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

part  of  his  nature,  with  the  hallowed  pleasure  insep- 
arable from  the  indulgence  of  good  affections,  and  the 
wretched  disquietude  attendant  on  evil  ones,  speaking 
loudly,  as  they  do,  for  a  God  who  loves  righteousness, 
and  hates  iniquity; — and  in  the  supremacy  of  con- 
science, enthroned,  as  it  were,  above  the  whole,  and 
ever  uttering  ber  voice  on  the  side  of  whatsoever  things 
are  true,  and  lovely,  and  of  good  report,  and  against 
their  opposites ;  and  not  only  so,  but  rewarding  well- 
doing, and  punishing  wrong-doing; — in  such  mental 
departments  of  natural  theology  as  these  we  gather 
no  less  rich  contributions  to  the  evidence  of  a  God? 
than  from  the  field  of  external  nature.^  Indeed,  in 
man  himself,  we  have  an  embodiment  of  the  whole 
argument.  He  is  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made. 
The  human  frame  is  the  noblest  structure  beneath 
the  heavens.  In  the  exquisite  mechanism  of  his 
body,  and  in  the  primitive  judgments,  and  wondrous 
operations  of  his  mind,  we  have  the  clearest  indica- 
tions of  the  Creator  that  lie  within  the  range  of 
natural  theology.  "  If  you  want  argument  from  de- 
sign," says  Mr.  Morell,"  "  then  you  see  in  the  human 
frame  the  most  perfect  of  all  known  organization. 
If  you  want  the  argument  from  being,  then  man,  in 
his  conscious  dependence,  has  the  clearest  conviction 
of  that  independent  and  absolute  one,  on  which  his 
own  being  reposes.  If  you  want  the  argument  from 
reason  and  morals,  then  the  human  mind  is  the  only 

'  See  Chalmers'  Institutes,  vol.  i.,  pp.  99 — 116. 
'  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  646-7. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    EXISrENCE.  47 

known  repository  of  both.  Man  is,  in  fact,  a  micro- 
cosm— a  universe  in  himself ;  and  whatever  proof  the 
whole  universe  affords,  is  involved  in  jjrmciple,  in  man 
himself  With  the  image  of  God  before  us,  who  can 
doubt  of  the  divine  type  ?" 

The  argument  then  for  the  being  of  a  God  is  nei- 
ther exclusively  a  posteriori,  nor  exclusively  a  priori^ 
but  partakes  of  both.  Men  cannot  declare  that  there 
is  no  God,  without  being  guilty  of  the  most  tremen- 
dous presumption.  He  is  a  fool  who  hazards  the  as- 
sertion, because  it  involves  an  amount  of  intelligence 
which  no  creature  can  possess,  the  very  attribute  of 
omniscience,  while  He,  in  whom  -alone  that  attribute 
resides,  is  denied.  And  not  only  so,  but  there  is  an 
intellectual  necessity  for  a  Being  uncaused  and  the 
cause  of  all.  The  mind  cannot  be  satisfied  without 
it.  It  refuses  to  pass  along  a  dependent  series  of 
causes  and  effects,  without  resting  in  something  that 
is  first  and  independent.  That  there  must  be  a  first 
cause,  is  a  primitive  belief,  a  proposition  that  lies  be- 
yond the  pale  of  demonstration, — a  principle  with 
which  we  start  in  our  reasoning  upwards,  and  to  the 
full  conviction  of  which  we  surrender  ourselves  at  the 
height  of  the  argument.  The  good  old  way  in  which 
men  have  reasoned  from  the  beginning,  is  upwards 
from  the  evidences  of  design  to  a  designer,  upwards 
from  the  goodly  collocations  of  matter  that  meet  our 
view,  and  the  mental  phenomena  that  come  under 
our  consciousness,  to  the  great  Parent  Source  of  all 
the  orderly  relations  of  matter  and  mind.  And  this 
simple  way  is  the  best  still.     Finite  effects,   indeed. 


48  '  ATHEISM  ;    OR, 

can  never,  of  themselves,  give  us  an  infinite  cause. 
The  dj  posteriori  argument,  strictly  speaking,  cannot, 
unaided,  carry  us  up  to  the  throne  in  the  heavens, 
and  prove  that  beyond  the  circle  of  natural  causes 
and  effects  is  the  great  First  Cause  of  all.  But  it 
leads  us  very  far  onward  in  that  path.  And  then,  by 
a  soft  and  imperceptible  step,  transfers  us  to  the  natu- 
ral conviction  that  there  is  an  independent  existence 
who  is  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  beginning  and  the 
ending,  the  First  and  the  Last.  To  the  height  of  this 
great  argument  we  rise  from  the  evidences  furnished 
both  by  matter  and  mind.  The  material  universe  is 
full  of  indications  of  the  natural  attributes  of  the 
Creator.  And  our  mental  constitution  is  no  less  full 
of  evidences  of  his  moral  nature.  We  weaken  our 
arguments  against  atheism,  if  we  refuse  to  avail  our- 
selves of  the  contributions  in  the  way  of  proof  which 
are  furnished  by  either  department.  Both  lie  within 
the  domain  of  the  inductive  philosophy.  And  with  the 
evidences  gathered  from  both,  we  logically  infer  that 
our  Maker  possesses  transcendent  attributes ;  that  he 
is  of  great  power,  and  wisdom,  and  goodness,  one  who 
loveth  righteousness,  and  hateth  iniquity.  From  the 
great  we  pass,  by  a  different  link,  to  the  infinite  ;  from 
transcendent  attributes  we  pass  to  absolute  perfections. 
And  that  link  is  supplied  by  the  mind  itself  The 
transition,  in  most  cases,  is  made  imperceptibly ;  but 
it  is  done.  We  have  a  certain  primitive  conviction 
that  there  is  a  Being  of  necessary  and  unchanging 
existence,  the  Maker  of  all  things,  and  in  whom  cen- 
tres,  in   an   infinite  degree,   every  perfection  that  is 


THE    DENIAL    OV    THE    DIVINE    EXISTENCE.  49 

found  in  His  works.  It  is  thus  that  we,  apart  from 
the  scriptural  revelation,  rise  with  a  firm  step  from 
nature  up  to  nature's  God. 

The  testimony  of  the  Bible  now  comes  and  crowns 
the  theistic  argument.     It  authenticates  the  deductions 
of  enlightened  reason,   and  confirms  those  primitive 
judgments,  whereby  we  repose  in  the  belief  that  God 
is,  and  that  He  is  what  He  is.     The  very  first  sublime 
utterance  of  inspiration.  In  the  begmnmg,  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earthy  sets  its  seal  that  our  reasoning 
upwards  from  matter  and  mind  to  the  Infinite  creating 
Mind,  is   true.       The   Bible  presupposes   the   Divine 
existence,  and  never  formally  attempts  to  prove  it.     It 
appeals  to  that  very  experimental  evidence,  which  is 
patent  to  the  eyes  of  all  men,  as  a  witness  against 
irreligion  and  idolatry,  and  for  the  only  living  and 
true  God,  while  it  throws  a  lustre,  peculiar  to  itself, 
around  his  moral  character,  and  his  relations  to  man 
and  the  world.     In  the  beneficial  collocations  of  mat- 
ter, in  the  orderly  relations  of  this  goodly  universe, 
and  in  the  constitution  of  the  mind,   with  its  intel- 
lectual powers  and  moral  sentiments,  there  is  a  vast 
amount  of  clear  evidence  which  points  upwards  to  an 
infinitely  perfect  Mind.     But  it  is  when  we  reach  the 
Bible  itself,  "  that  wondrous  monument  of  past  ages, 
with  its  firm  place  in  history,  and  its  telling  power  on 
men's  hearts,"  that  we  stand  on  an  elevation,  whence, 
like  the  angel  in  the  sun,  we  see  in  the  clearest  and 
most  impressive  light  the  glory  of  Him  who  created 
and  controls  all  things.     "  God  never  wrouglit  a  mir- 
acle," says  Bacon,   ''  to  convince  atheism,  because  his 


50  ATHEISM. 

ordinary  works  convince  it."  The  material  pheno- 
mena that  lie  around  us,  and  the  mental  phenomena 
that  arise  within  us,  give  the  lie  to  it.  And  if  men 
will  not  believe  on  the  ground  of  this  evidence  and 
the  superadded  evidence  of  revealed  truth,  neither 
would  they  believe  though  the  Eternal  uttered  His 
voice  from  the  rent  heavens,  and  declared  what  he 
has  done  in  His  word,  "  I  am  God,  and  besides  me 
there  is  none  else." 

Thus  far  the  proof  has  been  dogmatic.  But  after 
all,  to  use  the  weighty  words  of  Dr.  Arnold,^  "  the 
real  proof  is  the  practical  one  ;  that  is,  let  a  man  live 
on  the  hypothesis  of  its  falsehood,  the  practical  result 
will  be  bad ;  that  is,  a  man's  besetting  and  constitu- 
tional faults  will  not  be  checked ;  and  some  of  his 
noblest  feelings  will  be  unexercised,  so  that  if  he  be 
right  in  his  opinions,  truth  and  goodness  are  at 
variance  with  one  another,  and  falsehood  is  more 
favorable  to  our  moral  perfection  than  truth  ;  which 
seems  the  most  monstrous  conclusion  which  the 
human  mind  can  possibly  arrive  at." 

'  Life  of  Arnold,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE  PERSONALITY,  OR   PANTHEISM 

Pantheism  distinguished  from  atheism — The  result  of  severing 
two  good  principles — Pantheism  and  polytheism  a  higher  and 
a  lower  grade — Seduces  by  its  comprehensiveness — Its  existence 
in  the  past — The  doctrine  of  the  Eleatics  aad  of  Buddhism — Its 
prevalence  in  Germany :  Spinoza,  Schelling,  Hegel,  Strauss 
Feuerbach — French  philosophy  accused  of  it :  Cousin — Conti 
nental  Socialism  pantheistic — An  exotic  in  England — Emersoa 
and  his  school — Intellectual  pantheism  of  Carlyle — Remarks  of 
Professor  Garbett — Quotation  from  Tennyson — Bearings  of  pan 
theism  :  Makes  creation  an  inevitable  necessity,  destroys  respon 
sibility,  shuts  out  prayer,  and  extinguishes  individual  immoi 
tality — The  personality  of  God  argued  from  our  own  pei 
sonality,  from  consciousness  and  inward  experience,  from  thv 
language  of  Scripture — The  absolute  and  the  personal  reconciler 
in  Christ. 

Atheism  is  the  ultimate  poiut  to  which  pantheisn- 
tends.  Both  may  be  said  to  lie  in  the  same  plane 
But  the  one  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  other, 
The  atheist  denies  the  primal  truth  that  God  is. 
The  pantheist,  on  the  other  hand,  admits  it.  It  ia 
in  fact  with  him  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  truth, 
or  rather  the  one  great  truth  in  the  universe.  The 
atheist  sees  God  nowhere,  the  pantheist  sees  him 
everywhere.  The  one  looks  upon  a  world  wondrously 
fair  and  sublime,  every  department  of  which  is  bright 


52  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

with  intelligence,  and  resolves  the  whole  into  mere 
mechanical  forces,  and  thrusts  out,  by  a  denial  of  his 
being,  the  all-pervading  energy  of  nature's  God.  The 
other  sees  God  really  shining  in  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  living  in  the  flowers  and  the  grass  of  the  field, 
hears  him  speaking  in  the  winds  and  waters,  in  the 
songs  of  the  inhabiters  of  the  grove,  and  in  the  deep 
emotions  of  the  human  soul.  The  atheist  looks  up 
to  the  bright  heavens  and  around  on  the  variegated 
earth,  and  coolly  says.  There  is  nature,  but  no  God. 
The  panthesist  points  to  all  the  glorious  forms  of 
earth  and  sky,  and  exclaims,  with  something  like 
enthusiasm.  There  is  God.  The  Divine  Being  is  with 
him  indeed  the  only  real  existence.  The  universe 
with  its  multitudinous  forms  of  what  we  call  matter 
and  mind,  is  only  phenomenal.  Men  who  have  not 
reached  the  utmost  bound  of  infidelity — atheism,  or 
who  have  not  come  so  far  within  sight  of  it  as  pan- 
theism, conceive  of  the  Creator  as  entirely  distinct 
from  his  works,  though  incomprehensibly  present 
with  and  pervading  them.  But  the  pantheist  vir- 
tually makes  of  the  twain  one.  Nature  is  absorbed 
in  Deity..  God  is  extended  beneath  all  that  exists, 
thinks,  and  moves.  He  is  in  all  and  all  is  in  Him. 
The  pantheist  then  has  a  God,  and,  strictly  speaking, 
he  has  nothing  else.  But  his  God  is  merely  an 
infinite  substance,  a  vague  immensity — the  one 
essence  of  Being  extended  everywhere,  of  which  man 
and  all  other  existing  things  are  but  the  modes. 
The  world  and  all  the  fulness  thereof  mirrors  to  our 
view  the   glory  of  the    Infinite,  Personal,  and   Inde- 


THE  DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  53 

pendent  One.  But  the  pantheist  worships  the  mirror 
itself,  and  sums  up  his  creed  by  saying-  that  all  is 
God. 

Almost  every  fatal  dish  contains  food  as  well  as 
poison.  Every  error  in  religion  lies  upon  or  side  by 
side  with  some  truth.  Pantheism  has  within  it  an 
element  of  godliness,  but,  like  the  food  in  the  fatal 
dish,  it  is  overborne  and  rendered  destructive  by  the 
element  of  evil.  Or  rather,  pantheism  looks  like  a 
good  principle  severed  from  another  which  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  it  sound  and  healthy,  and  in  its  isolated 
state  transformed  into  a  bad  principle.  The  principle 
to  which  we  allude  is  the  omnipresence  and  all- 
pervading  energy  of  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the 
universe.  It  is  a  truth,  the  vivid  recognition  of  which 
is  essential  to  piety,  that  God  is  everywhere  present 
throughout  the  vast  creation.  All  nature  is  full  of 
Him.  The  luminaries  of  heaven  and  the  flowers  of 
earth,  the  perpetual  hills,  and  the  wide  sea  where  go 
the  ships,  the  various  animal  tribes,  and  intelligent 
man,  the  noblest  of  all,  proclaim  the  presence  of 
the  living  God.  It  might  be  thought  that  poetry  has 
carried  this  principle  too  far  when  it  represents  God 
as  shining  in  the  sun,  whispering  in  the  winds,  cloth- 
ing himself  with  clouds  and  storms,  and  speaking  in 
the  rational  nature  of  man.  But  such  poetry  is  not 
necessarily  pantheistic.  It  is  just  an  embodiment  in 
living  words  of  sentiments  and  emotions  that  burn 
more  or  less  in  the  bosom  of  every  man  who  is  suscep- 
tible of  the  influences  that  come  upon  him  from  every 
department   of    nature.      These    influences    tend   to 


64  PANTHEISM  ;    OE, 

raise  the  mind  from  nature  up  to  nature's  God,  and 
such  is  the  tendency  of  much  of  the  poetry  to  which 
we  allude.  The  morning  orison  which  Milton  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  Paradise,  the 
hymn  which  Thomson  raises  to  the  God  of  the 
seasons,  or  Coleridge's  "Hymn  before  sunrise  in  the 
vale  of  Chamouny,"  have  no  tendency  whatever  to 
produce  or  strengthen  pantheistic  feelings ;  because 
however  much  they  clothe  with  living  attributes  the 
grand  and  lovely  forms  of  nature,  they  never  absorb 
God  in  these  forms,  but  rise  from  the  visible  to  the 
Invisible,  and  make  "  earth  with  her  thousand  voices" 
praise  a  living,  personal,  and  absolutely  perfect  God. 
In  the  last  noble  hymn  which  we  have  mentioned, 
the  whole  of  Alpine  nature  is  grandly  personified, 
but  all  its  utterances  rise,  "like  a  cloud  of  incense," 
to  Him  who  in  his  glorious  personality  existed  before 
the  mountains  were  brought  forth  or  ever  He  had 
formed  the  earth  and  the  world.  It  is  this  latter 
principle,  the  principle  of  personality,  that  the  pan- 
theist sinks  or  loses  sight  of  The  world,  so  to  speak, 
is  full  of  vitalities.  God  is  present  in  them  in  the 
immensity  of  His  essence  whereby  He  fiUeth  all 
things.  That  is  a  true  devotional  principle.  God  is 
nevertheless  as  distinct  from  them  as  the  soul  of  man 
is  distinct  from  his  body.  That  is  another  true  de- 
votional principle.  Both  must  be  held  fast  in  order 
to  our  having  right  views  of  the  relation  subsisting 
between  the  Infinite  and  the  finite,  the  Divine  nature 
and  the  divinely-created  and  divinely-sustained  uni- 
verse.    Seize  hold  of  the  former  principle  and  let  go 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  55 

the  latter,  recognize  a  divinity  in  tlie  vitalities  which 
appear  in  the  world  around  you,  but  withhold  your 
recognition  of  a  divinity  essentially  distinct  from 
these  vitalities,  and  what  have  you  but  these  collective 
vitalities  for  a  God.     This  is  pantheism. 

Pantheism  and  polytheism  are  in  fact  but  a  higher 
and  a  lower,  a  more  refined  and  a  more  vulgar  way, 
which  men  have  taken  when  they  have  ceased  to 
walk  in  a  spiritual  relationship  with  God.^  Their 
idea  of  Him — 

<< who  sitteth  above  these  heavens 


To  us  invisible,  or  dimly  seen 
In  these  his  lowest  works," 

has  lost  its  vivid  spirituality,  and  they  have  fallen  from 
hio-h  converse  with  the  Creator  down  to  the  creation 

o 

itself  In  such  a  case,  the  more  learned  and  philo- 
sophic, who  were  not  prepared  to  take  the  leap  to 
absolute  atheism,  would  no  longer  regard  the  life  and 
thought  that  appear  in  the  visible  world  as  merely 
manifestations  of  the  presence  and  agency  of  the 
Great  Spirit,  but  as  modes  or  modifications  of  the 
Divine  essence.  Those,  on  the  other  hand,  "whose 
thoughts  proud  science  never  taught  to  stray,"  who 
had  little  or  nothing  of  the  speculative  temperament, 
and  who  could  not  grasp  the  idea  of  one  great  whole, 
would  see  a  distinct  deity  in  every  different  depart- 
ment of  nature.  The  one  beheld  the  same  infinite 
substance  under  all  mental  and  material  phenomena. 
What  are  called  powers  of  nature  or  secondary  causes, 

*  See  Tholuck  on  the  Nature  and  Moral  Influence  of  Heathen- 
ism, p.  16. 


58  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

all  of  which  are  controlled  by  the  supreme  Intelligent 
Cause,  would  be  regarded  by  the  speculatist  as  so 
many  modes  of  the  infinitely-extended  One.  The 
collective  energies  and  agencies  of  the  visible  world, 
in  his  estimation,  constituted  God.  And  thus  he 
became  a  pantheist.  The  other  class,  less  compre- 
hensive and  vigorous  in  mind,  looked  at  creation  in 
its  smaller  divisions,  and  recognizing  a  distinct  energy 
in  every  diiferent  kind  of  phenomena,  assigned  a  dis- 
tinct divinity  to  the  hills  and  to  the  vallies,  to  the 
woods  and  to  the  waters,  and  thus  became  polytheists. 
Pantheism  and  polytheism,  however  much  they  diverge 
the  one  from  the  other,  are  to  be  traced  up  to  the 
tendency  in  the  depraved  mind,  in  its  estrangement 
from  the  High  and  Holy  One,  to  confound  God  Avith 
nature,  and  to  lose  the  pure  spiritual  world  in  the 
phenomenal  and  visible.  The  reluctance  or  incapa- 
city of  men  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge  as  a 
Person,  self-existent  and  independent,  lies  at  the  bot- 
tom of  both.  The  one  is  the  fruit  of  a  speculative 
philosophy,  the  other  is  the  grosser  manifestation 
of  the  same  corrupt  tendency,  unrefined  and  unarrested 
by  the  influence  of  the  schools  or  the  higher  influence 
of  Christianity. 

It  is  this  very  comprehensiveness,  this  embracing 
nature  of  its  principles,  which  distinguishes  panthe- 
ism from  polytheism,  that  renders  it  in  Christian 
lands  the  most  dangerous  foe  to  Christianity.  '^  Never 
did  a  philosophical  system  take  such  an  attitude  to- 
wards the  Christian  faith;  it  does  not  make  it  a 
superstition,  as  did  atheism ;    it  does   not   neglect   it 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  57 

as  does  our  popular  philosophy ;  it  does  not  scout  its 
mysteries,  as  does  an  irrational  common-sense ;  nor 
does  it  attenuate  it  in  into  a  mere  ethical  system ;  but 
it  grants  it  to  be  the  highest  possible  form  of  man's 
religious  nature,  it  strives  to  transform  its  grandest 
truths  into  philosophical  principles ;  it  says  that  only 
one  thing  is  higher,  and  that  is  pantheism."^  There 
is  no  fear  of  men  becoming  polytheists  in  a  country 
where  paganism  has  been  rooted  out,  and  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Gospel  have  been  deeply  and  exten- 
sively felt.  But  pantheism  flourishes  in  the  very  heart 
of  communities  called  Christian,  and  coils  its  pliant 
form  around  the  very  faith  whose  author  and  finisher 
is  the  Brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
Image  of  His  Person.  The  coil  indeed  is  fatal:  for 
however  fair  to  look  upon  may  be  the  sinuous  folds, 
it  poisons  the  truth,  and  destroys  everything  that  is 
distinctively  Christian.  "  It  weaves  its  subtle  dialec- 
tics around  everything,  that  thus  it  may  drag  all  into 
its  terrific  vortex.  It  has  a  word  for  almost  every  man, 
excepting  for  the  Christian  established  in  his  faith. 
By  the  very  extravagance  of  its  pretensions  it  seduces 
many ;  by  its  harmony  with  the  life  of  sense  it  attracts 
those  who  love  the  world ;  and  by  its  ideal  character 
it  sways  such  as  would  fain  be  lifted  alcove  the 
illusions  of  sense  and  the  visions  of  imagination,  and 
Ihe  contradictions  of  the  understanding,  into  a  region 
of  rarer  air  where  reason  sways  a  universal  sceptre. 
Its  system  includes  all  things.  God  is  all  things ; 
or  rather  all  is  God ;  he  that  knows  this  system  knows 

'   Smith's  Relation  of  Faith  aud  Philosophy,  p.  11. 


58  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

and  has  God."^  It,  accordingly,  has  its  attractions  foi 
all  men  who  have  ceased  to  walk  in  communion  with 
the  living  personal  God,  and  who  yet  feel  the  want  of 
something  in  the  shape  of  religious  faith.  The  phi- 
losopher revels  in  it  as  in  a  region  of  boundless  specu- 
lation ;  the  poet  and  the  artist  find  therein  a  beautiful 
dwelling-place  where  they  can  wander  at  their  own 
sweet  will ;  and  the  half-thinking  artisan  is  pleased 
with  a  creed  which  interferes  so  little  with  material 
interests,  and  summons  him  so  seldom  to  look  at  things 
unseen  and  eternal.  Many  such  persons,  in  our  day, 
are  pantheists. 

Pantheism  is  not,  however,  a  thing  of  yesterday. 
It  has,  in  its  essence,  existed  in  all  ages.  Some  would 
persuade  us  that  it  is  the  latest  result  of  human  expe- 
rience, a  resting-place  for  the  long-tossed  mind, 
reserved  for  us  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  have 
come.  But  it  is  not  so.  Infidelity  in  our  times  is 
throwing  up  nothing  but  what  has  been  thrown  up 
before.  Its  different  forms  are  only  old  idols  in  new 
positions  and  arrayed  in  modern  garbs.  "  In  every 
form  of  it,  it  has  its  ancestry,  and  it  must  not  ask  now 
to  be  spoken  to  as  if  we  had  not  already,  and  long 
ago,  made  acquaintance  with  it."'  "Heresies,"  says 
Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "  are  like  the  river  Arethusa, 
though  they  lose  their  currents  in  one  place,  they  rise 
up  again  in  another."  We  meet  with  pantheism  in 
the  speculative  philosophy  of  the  ancient  world.     It 

'  Smith's  Relations  of  Faith  and  Philosophy,  p.  1 1. 
The  Restoration  of  Belief,  p.  15. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  59 

has  been  the  faith  of  millions  in  India  from  a  remote 
antiquity  clown  to  the  present  day.  Spinoza  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  Schelling,  and  Hegel  in  the 
nineteenth,  have  only  systematized  and  reduced  to  a 
severe  logical  form  what  had  been  floating  elsewhere 
for  ages  before.  This  was  substantially  the  doctrine  of 
the  Eleatics.  They  speculated  on  the  great  problem  of 
existence,  and  endeavored  to  resolve  those  mysteries 
which  have  baffled  the  human  understanding  in  every 
age.  Zeno,  the  most  distinguished  philosopher  of 
this  school,  maintained  that  there  was  but  one  real 
existence  in  the  universe,  that  all  other  things  were 
merely  phenomenal,  being  only  modifications  or  ap- 
pearances of  the  Great  One  which  existed  as  a  sub- 
stratum beneath  the  whole.  Pantheism,  indeed,  has 
appeared  in  all  nations  where  there  have  been  minds 
of  a  speculative  cast,  ignorant  of,  or  in  a  great  measure 
uninfluenced  by  the  revelation  of  Christ.  It  seems 
to  be  the  joint  product  of  an  estrangement  from 
God,  the  eternal  and  independent  I  am,  and  an  effort 
to  comprehend  the  essence  of  things  and  the  nexus 
which  unites  the  Infinite  with  the  finite,  the  pheno- 
mena of  nature  with  the  cause  of  all  that  phenomena. 
The  very  same  doctrine  forms  substantially  the  creed 
of  some  Hindoo  sects  in  the  present  day.  India  has 
had  its  philosophies  and  has  them  still.  And  pan- 
theism is  the  common  form  which  speculations  on  the 
mysteries  of  existence  have  there  assumed,  unrestrained 
as  these  speculations  have  been  in  the  absence  of  the 
Gospel.  Hindooism  and  Buddhism  are  but  philoso- 
phies of  religion.      The   priests  may  have  been  the 


60  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

speculatists,  but  the  system  has  found  a  spontaneoua 
welcome  with  the  people  who  were  too  dull  of  appre- 
hension to  rise  to  the  thought  of  a  pure  spiritual  In- 
telligence, and  too  alive  to  a  sense  of  dependence  to 
say  there  is  no  God.  The  author  of  the  "Recollec- 
tions of  British  India,"  speaking  of  a  philosophical  sect 
called  the  Gosains,  tells  us  that,  "  in  common  with  the 
Buddhists,  they  believe  that  the  Divine  Being  is  not 
separate  from,  but  in  himself  the  universe,  so  that  all 
its  constituent  parts  are  but  parts  of  himself  The 
different  deities,  therefore,  are  merely  portions  of  the 
same  essential  Godhead."  This  corroborates  what  has 
been  said  of  the  connection  between  pantheism  and 
polytheism,  and  reminds  us  of  the  old  doctrine  of  the 
Stoics,  according  to  which  the  spirit  pervades  the 
whole  world  as  the  substratum  of  its  activity,  and  re- 
c-eives  from  men  various  designations  according  to  the 
different  phenomena  which  it  animates.  There  is, 
indeed,  a  striking  coincidence  between  the  One  sub- 
stratum of  the  Eleatics,  the  Brahm  of  the  Hindoo,  and 
the  World-spirit  of  the  modern  German,^ 

Germany,  of  all  the  countries  of  modern  Europe, 
is  the  most  prolific  soil  of  Pantheism.  And  it  is 
imported  from  thence  into  our  own  among  other 
European  states.  It  is  the  native  fruit  of  her  meta- 
physics. The  mental  habitudes  of  her  people  are 
peculiarly  thoughtful  and  reflective.  Philosophy,  not 
the  inductive  and  experimental  as  with  us,  but  the 
speculative  and  idealistic,  is  natural  to  the  German 
mind.     Her  schools  have  been  absorbed  in  discussing 

'   Dr  Vaiighan's  Age  aud  Christianity,  p.  255. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  61 

the  same  great  questions  which  were  discussed  over 
and  over  again  in  the  schools  of  the  ancients.  Those 
mysterious  problems  which  regard  the  principles  of 
things,  the  existence  and  nature  of  God,  the  relations 
between  Him  and  the  universe,  and  the  origin  of 
human  knowledge, — problems  on  the  solution  of 
which  the  greatest  minds  in  past  ages  have  been 
employed  with  so  little  profit, — possess  a  peculiar 
charm  for  the  philosophers  of  the  Continent.  There 
is  this  important  difference,  however,  between  the 
pantheism  of  the  old  world  and  that  of  the  new, 
between  that  of  ancient  Greece  and  India,  and  that 
of  modern  Germany  :  the  one  sprung  up  and  flour- 
ished in  the  absence  of  an  authoritative  revelation 
from  heaven,  while  the  other  has  risen  and  spread 
in  contempt  of  it.  The  German  has  become  a  pan- 
theist with  the  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  his  foot  in 
the  birth-place  of  the  Reformation.  He  has  refused 
to  follow,  humbly  and  submissively,  that  light  that 
has  come  into  the  world,  and  which  alone  has  hitherto 
conducted  individuals  or  communities  to  rest. 

The  German  philosophy — a  philosophy  which  seeks 
to  reach  the  one  originating  principle  of  ail  things — 
has  been  carried  into  the  region  of  theology,  and 
there  borne  its  bitter  fruit.  Spinoza  has  been  justly 
regarded  as  the  father  of  modern  pantheism.  He, 
by  a  stern  logic,  fully  developed  the  system  of  Des- 
cartes. The  illustrious  Frenchman  had  endeavored 
to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  God  from  the  phe- 
nomena of  consciousness.  The  position  he  assumed 
was,    that   whatever    consciousness    clearly   proclaims 


62  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

must  be  true.  Descartes,  in  short,  derived  existence 
from  thought.  Spinoza  identified  them,  and  referred 
both  to  the  one  Infinite  Substance  of  which  every- 
thing else  is  a  mode  or  manifestation.  According  to 
his  logic,  God  is  the  only  reality  in  the  universe, 
the  one  universal  existence  that  underlies  all  other 
existences,  so  that  everything  is  in  and  from  God. 
The  distinction  between  the  Creator  and  his  works 
was  thus  annihilated,  and  the  system  of  pantheism 
became  complete.  Others  had  held  it  as  a  vague 
dreamy  doctrine,  but  Spinoza  was  the  first  to  give  it 
a  rigid  logical  form.  It  is  remarkable  that  he,  too, 
in  a  passage  in  his  posthumous  works,  has  anticipated 
some  of  the  disciples  of  the  Hegelian  school  in  their 
interpretation  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  "  I 
tell  you,"  says  he  in  a  letter  to  Oldenburgh,  "  that  it 
is  not  necessary  for  your  salvation,  that  you  should 
believe  in  Christ  according  to  the  flesh ;  but  of  that 
eternal  Son  of  God,  that  is,  the  eternal  wisdom  of 
God,  which  is  manifested  in  all  things,  but  especially 
in  the  human  mind  and  most  of  all  in  Jesus  Christ, 
we  must  cherish  a  very  different  opinion."  ^  It  is  the 
philosophy  of  Spinoza,  propounded  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  diffused  over  the  Continent  ever  since 
by  his  writings,  that  has  given  the  greatest  impulse 
to  the  speculative  mind  of  Germany,  and  produced 
that  wide-spread  pantheism  so  characteristic  of  Ger- 
man speculations.  Schelling  and  Hegel,  whose  names 
are  identified  with   the  pantheism  of  the   nineteenth 

'  Lewes'  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  iii.,  p.  125 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE   PERSONALITY.  63 

century,  are  tlie  fruit  of  his  labors.  They  have 
refined  and  carried  out  the  system  to  which  Spinoza 
gave  the  form.  In  both  of  these  philosophic  leaders 
we  see  a  thorough  contempt  for  what  is  inductive 
and  experimental,  the  method  by  which  Newton 
attained  an  unprecedented  eminence  in  physical 
science,  and  Locke  rose  to  such  high  distinction 
in  the  science  of  mind.  The  treasures  of  knowledge 
which  observation  contributes  are  professedly  dis- 
carded by  them,  and  those  which  abstract  reason 
furnishes  are  exclusively  valued.  The  evidence  from 
design,  which  has  been  so  fully  illustrated  by  our 
own  writers  on  natural  theology,  and  which  is  so 
patent  to  the  eyes  of  all  men,  is  set  at  nought  by  the 
heads  and  disciples  of  this  school.  And  they  pre- 
tend to  prove  all  existence  by  laying  down  a  'priori 
axioms,  and  starting  from  them  in  a  course  of  stern 
logical  argumentation.  By  this  process,  Fichte,  who 
preceded  the  two  philosophers  referred  to,  brought 
to  a  fatal  consummation  what  is  called  Subjective 
Idealism.  Nature  and  God  in  his  philosophy  vanished. 
Self  became  the  solitary  existence  in  the  universe, 
and  the  creator  of  everything  else  human  and  divine. 
The  moral  order  of  the  world  was  all  that  was  left  for 
the  world's  God,  and  the  philosopher  stood  on  the 
very  brink  of  absolute  atheism.  From  this  the  mind 
of  Germany  shrunk  back;  and  Schelling  reproduced, 
in  an  attractive  form,  the  pantheistic  system,  the 
tendency  towards  which  is  so  strong  in  the  great 
Fatherland.  He  identified  the  subject  and  the  object, 
and  made  them  manifestations  of  God  or  the  Absolute. 


64  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

Nature  with  him  is  but  the  self-development  of  Deity. 
The  whole  phenomeuca  of  the  universe  have  proceeded 
in  one  strict  chain  of  necessary  evolution.  And  God 
has  only  come  to  realize  himself,  and  attain  self-con- 
sciousness, in  man.  Everything,  according  to  this 
system,  exists  in,  God,  and  He  is  of  necessity  the 
All  One.  The  system,  in  so  far  as  it  is  intelligible, 
proclaimed  the  universe  to  be  God.  There  was, 
however,  another  step  to  be  taken  before  the  climax 
was  reached,  and  that  step  was  boldly  taken  by  Hegel. 
He  denied  the  existence  of  both  subject  and  object, 
and  left  only  a  universe  of  relations.  Everything 
with  him  is  a  process  of  thought,  and  God  himself 
is  the  whole  process  ,  The  Deity  is  not  a  self-existent 
reality,  but  a  never-ending  self-discession,  which  never 
realizes  itself  so  fully  as  in  the  human  consciousness. 
Creation,  according  to  this,  is  not  a  single  act,  but  God 
is  necessarily  ever  creating.  The  pantheism  of  the 
Hegelian  system  is  obvious  amid  much  of  the  mysticism 
that  shrouds  it.  Nature  is  absorbed  in  God,  and  God 
and  the  universe,  whatever  they  be,  are  identified. 
By  this  same  process  of  pure  philosophic  thought, 
Hegel  pretended  to  deduce  the  whole  of  doctrinal 
Christianity.  Schelling  before  him  had  made  the  Gos- 
pel revelation  one  of  the  modes  in  Avhich  God  is  mani- 
festing himself  in  history.  But  Hegel,  by  his  philoso- 
phy, transformed  Christianity  into  a  system. of  regularly 
evolved  ideas,  the  value  of  which  is  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  historical  testimony. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  David  Frederick  Strauss  and 
his    school   appear.      He   has   put   on    the   Hegelian 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  65 

armor,  taken  his  stand  in  tlie  very  heart  of  the 
Christian  theology,  scattered  into  air  the  grand  ob- 
jective element  of  the  Gospel,  and  left  nothing  re- 
maining except  a  few  religious  ideas  or  conceptions 
of  the  mind.  He  is,  strictly  speaking,  neither  a 
rationalist  nor  a  supernaturalist.  He  disavows  all 
connection  with  either,  and  proclaims  war  against 
both.  He  is,  however,  a  pantheist  in  the  extreme. 
He  represents  the  far  left  of  the  Hegelian  party,  and 
stands  on  the  very  verge  of  atheism,  if  he  has  not 
fallen  into  the  gulf  God  is  with  him  a  process  of 
thought.  He  has  no  separate  individual  existence. 
Apart  from  the  universe,  or  out  of  that  process  which 
is  alleged  to  be  eternally  unfolding  itself  and  which 
attains  the  highest  state  of  consciousness  in  the  mind 
of  the  philosopher  himself,  there  is  no  God.  No 
room  whatever  is  left  in  the  system  for  the  interven- 
tion of  a  personal  God,  and  in  the  system  a  personal 
God  has  no  existence.  Hence  his  mythical  theory. 
The  historical  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  according  to 
him,  was  the  personified  ideas  of  the  church.  The 
Divine  Redeemer*  was  a  process,  a  personality  gradu- 
ally formed  out  of  elements  contributed  by  Old  Tes- 
tament history,  rabbinical  tradition,  and  the  state  of 
the  popular  mind  at  the  time  when  the  Messiah  was 
expected.  In  other  words,  Christ  was  the  creation 
of  the  church,"  not  the  founder  of  it.  Such  a  person 
as  Jesus,  it  is  admitted,  lived  and  died,  who  believed 
himself  to  be  the  Christ.  Strauss  recognised  a  small 
historical  element  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  a  kind  of 
skeleton   which    the   church    gradually   clothed   with 


66  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

flesh  and  blood,  the  distinguishing  attributes  of  which 
were  an  investment  thrown  around  it  from  the  mind 
of  the  church  itself  The  fully-developed  Christ  of 
the  Gospel,  was  thus  made  the  embodied  aggregate 
of  the  conceptions  of  the  first  Christians  and  the 
thoughts  of  the  past.  This  is  the  latest  shape,  with 
the  exception  perhaps  of  Feuerbach's,  which  German 
infidelity  has  assumed,  the  extreme  point  to  which 
pantheism  has  been  carried,  and  where  it  becomes 
almost,  if  not  altogether,  identical  with  atheism.  It 
leaves  no  God,  but  a  vague  personification  of  human 
consciousness.  The  existence  of  a  divine  conscious- 
ness separate  from  the  human  is  ignored.  It  sweeps 
the  world  clean  of  an  historical  Christianity.  It  binds 
up  all  the  physical  and  moral  movements  of  the 
world  in  one  unbroken  chain  of  necessary  develop- 
ment. And  having  left  no  Supreme  and  Independent 
object  of  worship,  it  takes  away  the  Bible,  and  pre- 
sents us  with  nothing  in  its  room  but  mythological 
ideas  embellishing  the  shadow  of  a  reality.  Pantheism 
in  Germany  will  be  found,  then,  like  other  forms  of 
infidelity,  to  have  a  variety  of  shades,  so  that  those 
who  stand  at  the  one  extreme  may  hold  some  opinions 
that  are  denied  by  those  who  stand  at  the  other. 
Hegel  himself  was  unquestionably  a  pantheist,  though 
it  may  be  doubted  if  he  would  have  gone  the  length 
of  his  bold  and  admiring  disciple  Strauss.  But  Spinoza, 
the  founder  of  this  philosophy,  and  Sohelling,  Hegel, 
Strauss,  and  others,  who  have  developed  it,  agree  in 
this  that  they  sink  the  personality  of  God. 

*  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  chap,  v.,  sect.  2. 


THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   DIVINE   PERSONALITY.  67 

Pantheism  is  not,  however,  restricted  to  the  schools 
and    literature    of    Germany.     The    existing   French 
philosophy  is  by  no  means  clear  of  it.     While  there  is 
reason  to  apprehend  that,  in  its  most  unphilosophic 
form,  it  constitutes  the  faith  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
French  people.      The  system  of  Cousin,  who  is   re- 
garded as  the  founder  and  coryphaeus  of  the  modern 
eclectic  school  of  France,  has  met  with  much  opposi- 
tion from  various  writers  on  account  of  its  pantheistic 
leanings.     He  holds  the  balance,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  has 
remarked,  between  the  two  philosophies  of  Germany 
and  Scotland,  neither  being  exclusively  ontological  as 
the  former,  nor  exclusively  psychological  as  the  latter. 
His  idealism,  modified  though  it  be,  has  led  him,  how- 
ever, in  a  pantheistic  direction.     And  though  he  repels 
the  charge  of  pantheism,  yet  what  other  interpretation 
can  be  put  on  his  language,  when  he  speaks  of  God  as 
*' being  absolute  cause,  one  and  many,  eternity  and 
time,  essence  and  life,  end  and  middle,  at  the  summit 
of  existence  and  at  its  base,  infinite  and  finite  together  ; 
in  a  word,  a  Trinity,  being  at  the  same  time  God, 
Nature,  and  Humanity."     Mr.  Morell,  an  admirer  of 
Cousin's  genius,  justly  remarks,  when  commenting  on 
his  view  of  the  Divinity  :   "even  if  we  admit  that  it  is 
not  a  doctrine,  like  that  of  Spinoza,  which  identifies 
God  with  the  abstract  idea  of  substance  ;  or  even  like 
that  of  Hegel,   which  regards   Deity  as   synonymous 
with  the  absolute  law  and  process  of  the  universe ;  if 
we  admit,  in  fact,  that  the  Deity  of-  Cousin  possesses 
a  conscious  personality,  yet  still  it  is  one  which  con- 
tains in  itself  the  finite  personality  and  consciousness 


68  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

of  every  subordinate  mind.  God  is  the  ocean — we 
are  but  the  waves ;  the  ocean  may  be  one  individuality, 
and  each  wave  another ;  but  still  they  are  essentially 
one  and  the  same."^ — Here  we  have  the  very  notion 
of  Deity  which  is  developed  in  much  of  the  current 
literature  of  the  day,  and  which  leads  to  a  system  of 
man-worship.  The  finite  is  an  emanation  or  portion 
of  the  infinite.  The  universe  is  comprehended  in  God. 
Men's  souls  are  divine.  Every  man  is  an  incarnation 
of  Deity.  All  existences  are  in  God,  and  God  is  in  all 
existences.^ 

But  the  veil  of  mysticism  which  shrouds  the  pan- 
theism of  the  schools,  and  often  renders  its  language 
hard  to  be  understood,  is  removed  from  the  pantheism 
of  the  people.  The  socialism  of  the  Continent  is,  in 
a  great  measure,  pantheistic.  The  masses,  who  are 
incapable  of  following  the  philosopher  in  his  meta- 
physical investigations,  readily  apprehend  their  results 
when  popularized,  and  brought  within  the  sphere  of 
man's  interests  and  duties.  This  is  done  by  the 
socialist  propaganda.  And  however  much  the  various 
sects  of  socialism  war  with  each  other  on  points  of 

*  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  502,  5U. 

"^  It  is  but  just  to  admit,  what  Cousin  stoutly  contends  for,  that 
his  system  is  not  identical  with  that  of  Spinoza  and  the  Eleatics. 
"  I  must  remind  my  adversaries,"  says  he,  "  that  the  God  of  Spi- 
noza and  the  Eleatics  is  a  pure  substance,  and  not  a  cause.  In  the 
system  of  Spinoza,  creation  is  impossible :  in  mine  it  is  necessary." 
But  when  he  tells  us  that  "  if  God  be  not  everything,  he  is  nothing ; 
—that  everywhere  present,  He  returns,  as  it  were,  to  himself  in  the 
consciousness  of  man," — who  can  wonder  if  it  be  looked  upon  as 
pantheism  of  another  phase?  See  Cousin's  Phil.  Essays,  (Clark's 
edition,)  pp.  22,  77. 


THE   DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  69 

polity,  they  are  generally  of  one  mind  in  regard  to 
man-worship.  Amid  the  late  revolutions  which  shook 
continental  Europe,  it  was  not  difficult  to  see  the 
divinity  to  whom  the  clouds  of  incense  arose.  That 
the  highest  being  is  man,  was  the  dogma  commonly 
taught  and  cordially  received.  In  France,  the  teach- 
ing of  Pierre  Leroux,  who  has  been  counted  the  meta- 
physician of  socialism,  was  undisguised  pantheism. 
He  knows  of  no  God  distinct  from  the  universe  ot 
being.  And  humanity  with  him  is  but  Jhe  incarna- 
tion of  divinity.  The  tendency,  in  short,  of  all  the 
socialist  sects  in  France,  notwithstanding  the  religious 
sentimentalism  of  the  language  of  some  of  their  leaders, 
is  towards  pantheism.  Hence  their  declamations  on 
the  perfectibility  of  the  human  race,  and  their  exclu- 
sion of  all  motive  power  but  the  human  will.  God, 
according  to  them,  was  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  so  he  is 
in  the  French  people.  And  this  is  the  faith  which 
has  supplanted  the  infidelity  of  Voltaire  in  the  heart 
of  the  nation.  The  diseased  patient  is  perpetually 
turning  himself  on  the  same  bed,  seeking  rest  and 
finding  none.  The  communism  of  Germany  is  ram- 
pant with  the  same  element.  Feuerbach,  who  is  the 
chief  teacher  of  the  more  advanced  form  of  socialism, 
has  deified  the  human  race.  According  to  him  God 
is  not  a  being  above  man,  but  God  is  to  be  found  in 
man.  Religion  is  not  a  thing  that  comes  to  man  from 
without,  but  the  whole  contents  of  religion  are  derived 
from  human  nature  itself  Man  thus  becomes  a  god 
to  himself  Theology  becomes  anthropology.  And 
pantheism  reaches  the  point  to  which  it  is  ever  tending, 


70  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

tlie  kOry  verge  of  atheism.  Sucli  has  been,  and  is 
in  a  _gveiit  measure  still,  the  faith  of  immense  mul- 
titudes of  people  on  the  Continent,  in  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  And  if  there  is  one  lesson 
more  impressively  taught  than  another  by  the  recent 
commotions,  amid  which  such  gross  infidelity  was 
thrown  up,  it  is  thrft  such  a  faith  can  never  give  rest 
and  happiness  to  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Pantheism  among  ourselves  is  somewhat  of  an  exotic. 
The  sturdy  English  mind  is  not  the  most  congenial 
soil  for  it.  The  philosophy  from  which  it  has  sprung, 
is  alien  to  the  mental  habitudes  of  our  people.  But 
if  it  does  not  exist  as  an  intellectual  system  in  our 
schools,  or  widely  prevail  in  the  communistic  form 
among  the  masses,  it  has  been  imported  into  our 
literature  in  the  most  alluring  guise,  and  is  destined, 
we  think,  to  prove  for  awhile  the  great  foe  of  Bible 
Christianity. 

In  some  of  the  transatlantic  productions  which 
are  circulating  among  us,  we  meet  with  the  system 
in  its  poetic  or  mgst  attractive  form.  The  Emerson 
school,  which  numbers  many  disciples  in  our  land, 
is  unquestionably  pantheistic.  Emerson  himself, 
with  all  his  gorgeous  mysticism,  is  a  pantheist.  Man- 
worship  is  the  philosophy  which  pervades  his  specu- 
lations. He  comes  before  the  world  as  a  reformer. 
And  whether  he  addresses  a  class  of  divinity  students, 
or  the  members  of  a  literary  society,  or  a  mechanics' 
association,  the  one  prominent  doctrine  in  his 
orations  is  the  soul  of  man.  Emerson  finds  every- 
thing in  man,  and  he  wages  war  with  all  systems  that 


THE  DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  71 

lead  man  out  of  himself  for  an  object  of  faith  and  wor- 
ship. His  complaint  is  that  "  the  soul  is  not  preached," 
The  doctrine  of  the  soul,  "first  soul;  and  second,  soul; 
and  evermore,  soul;"  is,  according  to  him,  the  grand 
truth  that  is  to  regenerate  the  world,  and  he  seems  to 
consider  himself  commissioned  to  promulgate  it.  He 
boldly  denies  the  personality  of  God.  It  is  the  "theo- 
logic  cramp"  that  bound  Swedenborg,  one  of  his 
favorite  Representative  Men,  that  otherwise  "colossal 
soul."  After  the  manner  of  some  of  the  German 
Transcendentalists,  he  holds  the  totality  of  being  to 
be  God,  who  comes  to  self-consciousness  only  in  the 
individual  man.  "  The  universal  does  not  attract  us 
until  housed  in  an  individual.  Who  heeds  the  waste 
abyss  of  possibility  ?  The  ocean  is  everywhere  the 
same,  but  it  has  no  character  until  seen  with  the 
shore  or  the  ship."  Man  is  at  once  the  worshipper 
and  the  object  of  worship.  "  Standing  on  the  bare 
ground,  my  head  bathed  by  the  blithe  air,  and  uplifted 
into  infinite  space,  all  mean  egotism  vanishes. — The 
currents  of  the  Universal  Being  circulate  through 
me.  I  am  part  or  particle  of  God."  Prayer,  in  perfect 
consistency  with  these  notions,  is  shut  out.  "It  is 
God  in  us  which  checks  the  language  of  petition  by 
a  grander  thought."  Historical  Christianity,  being  a 
thing  from  without,  is  repudiated.  Man  is  a  revela- 
tion to  himself  His  soul  becomes  the  fountain  of  all 
truth  and  goodness.  And  Emerson  and  his  school 
complain  that  "men  have  come  to  speak  of  the  reve- 
lation as  somewhat  long  ago  given  and  done,  as  if  God 
were  dead."     The  first  defect  of  Historical  Christianity 


72  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

with  him  is,  that  it  "  dwells  with  noxious  exaggeration 
about  the ]9erson  of  Jesus."  For  "the  soul  knows  no 
persons."  Mr.  Emerson,  like  many  others  who  would 
destroy  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  great  Teacher, 
professes  much  admiration  for  Jesus  Christ.  He  is 
no  longer  denounced  as  an  impostor.  He  is  held  up 
as  the  true,  the  model  man.  "  He  saw  with  open  eye 
the  mystery  of  the  soul. — Alone  in  all  history,  he 
estimated  the  greatness  of  man.  One  man  was  true 
to  what  is  in  you  and  me.  He  saw  that  God  incar- 
nates himself  in  man,  and  evermore  goes  forth  anew 
to  take  possession  of  his  world.  He  said,  in  this 
jubilee  of  sublime  emotion,  'I  am  divine.  Through 
me  God  acts;  through  me,  speaks.  Would  you  see 
God,  see  me ;  or,  see  thee,  when  thou  also  thinkest 
as  I  now  think.'"  But  the  doctrine  of  the  true 
prophet  was  distorted,  and  Mr.  Emerson  tells  us  how. 
"  Because  the  indwelling  Supreme  Spirit  cannot 
wholly  be  got  rid  of,  the  doctrine  of  it  suffers  this  per- 
version, that  the  divine  nature  is  attributed  to  one  or 
two  persons,  and  denied  to  all  the  rest,  and  denied 
with  fury." — Man,  in  short,  is  thus  made  the  highest 
being.  Every  human  soul  is  a  wave  in  the  ocean  of 
divine  existence.  God  is  the  whole  sea.  And  we  are 
divine  or  a  part  of  God.  No  wonder  then  that  man 
refuses  to  receive  truth  at  second-hand,  and  is  taught 
to  believe  that  all  the  virtues  are  comprehended  in 
Belf-trust.  Know  yourself,  reverence  yourself,  rely 
upon  yourself,  are  the  law  and  gospel  of  this  school 
that  claims  to  regenerate  the  world.  In  this  strain 
does  this  poetic  philosopher   discourse  to  the  youth 


* 
THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  73 

connected  with  divinity  halls,  literary  societies,   and 
mechanics'  institutes.^ 

He  is  not  a  logician,  but  a  seer ;  he  announces,  not 
argues ;  is  the  language  of  an  admiring  editor  of  his 
works.  This  witness  is  true.  Seldom  or  never  does 
anything  in  the  shape  of  an  argument  cross  our  path 
in  reading  the  orations  and  essays  of  Emerson.  He 
dreams  and  dogmatizes.  All  his  responses  are  de- 
livered with  oracular  authority.  "  I  stand  here  to  say, 
Let  us  worship  the  mighty  and  transcendent  soul." 
He  is  unquestionably  a  man  of  genius,  endowed  with 
exquisite  sensibilities  and  a  brilliant  fancy.  His  style 
though  far  from  undefiled,  is  energetic  and  attractive 
It  is  often,  however,  far  too  mystical  to  be  extensivelj 
popular.  He  is,  after  all  that  has  been  said  aboui 
him,  a  dreamer,  a  glorious  dreamer  if  you  will,  bui 
still  a  dreamer.  Such  seers  as  Mr.  Emerson  have 
been  in  the  world  before,  and  have  discoursed  to  young 
and  old,  as  he  has  done,  about  the  divinity  of  the  soul, 
and  the  duty  of  self-reliance,  and  what  the  better  has 
the  world  been  for  such  oracles  ?  History  attests  that 
it  never  has  been  by  such  dreamers  and  dreamy  sys- 
tems that  society  has  been  quickened  and  regenerated. 
Look  at  the  Hebrew  prophets  who  ever  and  anon  ap- 
peared, filled  with  the  inspiring  Spirit,  to  rebuke  the 
Israelites  for  their  apostasy,  and  recall  them  to  the 
service  of  the  living  God.  Look  at  John,  the  har- 
binger of  the  Messiah,  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,    whose,  teaching   was    so   influential    and 

*  See  Emerson's  Orations  and  Essays,  passim. 


74  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

impressive  for  good.  Look  at  Christ  himself,  who 
"  alone  in  all  history,  estimated  the  greatness  of  man," 
and  for  whom  Emerson  and  his  disciples  profess  such 
veneration,  and  where  in  all  his  discourses  do  you  find 
him  preaching  this  doctrine  of  the  soul,  telling  his 
hearers  that  there  is  no  atheism  but  the  proposition 
of  depravity,  that  they  are  parts  or  particles  of  God, 
and  that  they  ought  to  rely  upon  themselves  and  act 
a  godlike  part?  The  conduct  of  Judas  was  honor- 
able compared  with  such  attempts  to  betray  the  Son 
of  man  with  a  kiss.  Look  at  Paul  and  the  noble 
company  of  the  apostles,  men  who  turned  the  world 
upside  down  when  living,  and  who  being  dead  yet 
speak,  and  in  vain  do  you  seek  for  a  single  point  of 
contact  between  their  doctrines,  which  alone  have  been 
instrumental  in  the  world's  regeneration,  and  this  sys- 
tem of  man-worship.  Look  at  all  the  mighty  throng, 
be  they  poets  or  philosophers,  statesmen  or  divines, 
who,  by  the  almost  universal  consent  of  mankind,  have 
been  counted,  in  .the  highest  sense  of  the  expression, 
reformers,  and  who  have  left  the  salutary  impress  of 
their  genius  and  labors  on  their  own  and  succeeding 
times,  and  which  of  iJiem  ever  acted  on  the  belief  that 
in  one  soul,  in  any  soul,  are  resources  for  the  world, 
and  that  the  office  of  a  true  teacher  is  to  show  God 
in  the  soul  ?  "  The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that 
which  shall  be."  The  world's  regeneration  will  go  on 
as  it  has  begun.  And  that  is  not  by  preaching  the 
pantheistic  doctrine  of  the  soul.  Go  to  the  heathen- 
ism that  is  abroad,  or  to  the  heathenism  that  surrounds 
us  at  home;   tell  the  idolator  in  the  wilderness  who 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  75 

drinks  out  of  tlie  skulls  of  his  enemies,  or  tell  the 
convict  in  his  cell,  or  the  half-naked  wretch  in  his 
hovel,  that  his  soul  is  divine,  and  the  haggard  look 
and  grovelling  propensities  will  cry  out  that  the  doc- 
trine is  a  mockery  and  a  lie.  But  the  disciples  of  this 
school  never  venture  into  such  fields  as  these.  Mr. 
Emerson  tells  us  that  in  walking  abroad,  he  sees 
vegetables  and  trees  nodding  to  him,  and  he  nods  to 
them,^  But  he  meets  with  no  salutation  from  men 
where,  if  true,  his  doctrine  would  be  most  welcome. 
It  is  only  among  the  dreaming  men  and  youth  in 
cities  and  towns,  persons  who  have  a  love  for  the  half 
mystic  and  half  poetic,  persons  whose  religious  senti- 
ments are  vague  and  undefined,  and  who  are  disposed 
to  be  gods  unto  themselves,  that  he  finds  worshippers 
of  this  doctrine  of  the  soul.  There  he  may  do  some 
mischief  But  neither  he  nor  any  of  his  school  will 
■ever  by  any  witchery  of  language,  gain  an  ascendency 
ever  the  strong  English  mind.  And  of  two  things 
they  may  be  assured.  Historical  Christianity  will 
ever  prove  too  mighty  for  them.  It  has  overcome 
vastly  more  powerful  enemies,  and  travelled  on  in  the 
greatness  of  its  strength.  And  this  system  of  man- 
worship,  like  every  other,  will  miserably  fiiil  to  re- 
generate mankind.  The  diseased  patient  must  look 
to  the  remedy  without.  And  instead  of  being  mocked 
by  the  cry,  look  to  yourself,  hearken  to  the  good  old 
invitation,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world.  "^ 

'  Emerson's  Nature. 

^  The  very  able  author  of  "  The  Restoration  of  Belief,"  in  putting 


76  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

In  speaking  of  Mr.  Carlyle  in  this  connection,  we 
are  to  be  understood  rather  as  indicating  the  religious 
bearing  of  much  of  his  writings,  than  assigning  him 
a  definite  place  in  a  particular  category.  There  is  no 
great  writer  in  modern  times  who  is  ever  speaking  of 
men's  beliefs  or  unbeliefs,  of  whom  it  is  more  difficult 
to  say  precisely  what  his  own  belief  or  unbelief  is. 
John  Foster  once  said,  (whether  wisely  or  unwisely 
we  leave  the  reader  to  judge,)  that  it  would  at  any 
time  be  a  great  luxury  to  him  to  accompany  a  few 
athletic  men  with  pole-axes  among  the  monuments  in 
Westminster.  Abbey,  to  be  most  vigorously  wielded, 
with  just  here  and  there  an  omission,  in  a  process 
which  we  might  imagine.^  Mr.  Carlyle  has  a  like 
luxury  in  vigorously  wielding  his  pole-axe  against 
our  churches,  as  if  they  were  "  mere  cases  of  arti- 
cles ;"  and  against  our  Bible  creeds,  as  if  they  were  no 
better  than  "  extinct  traditions,"  "  unbelievabilities," 
"  worn-out  symbolisms,  reminiscences,  and  simulacra." 
We  might  easily  conjecture  what  Foster's  excepted 
instances  among  the  sculptured  memorials  would  have 

"  ia  a  distinct  light  what  it  was  which  the  church  of  the  early  age 
did  for  mankind  in  preparation  for  a  new  moral  era,  and  under  what 
conditions  this  necessary  function  was  discharged,"  and  thereby  con- 
structing an  argument  in  favor  of  Christianity,  remarks,  "  the  ground 
of  that  Christian  fortitude  (the  fortitude  of  Polycarp  and  his  con- 
temporaries) which,  in  the  end,  prevailed  over  the  polytheism  of  the 
Roman  State,  was  a  belief  toward  a  Person  ;  it  was  not  an  opinion 
as  to  a  doctrine," — "  but  a  belief  toward  a  Person  whose  authority 
they  regarded  as  paramount  to  every  other."  (Pp.  74,  77.)  Thxs 
belief  in  a  personal  •  Saviour-God  is  the  grand  lever  in  the  worW  i 
elevation. 

'   Life  of  Foster. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  77 

been,  but  we  are  without  ground  on  which,  to  con- 
jecture the  exceptions,  if  exceptions  there  be,  in  the 
case  of  Carlyle.  Multitudes  of  good  men  read  his 
writings  with  strong  suspicions  that,  under  the  cover 
of  assailing  the  shams,  hypocrisies,  and  formalities, 
of  which  there  are  unhappily  too  many  in  the  church 
as  well  as  in  the  world,  he  is  assailing  the  very  Bible 
truth  itself;  and  these  suspicions  are  certainly  not 
weakened  by  his  last  interesting  work,  "  The  Life  of 
John  Sterling."  We  know  that  he  has  said,  "Adieu, 
0  Church  ;  thy  road  is  that  way,  mine  is  this :  in 
God's  name,  adieu !"  We  know  that  he  does  worship 
in  "  the  great  Cathedral  of  Immensity,"  and  acknowl- 
edges "the  Supreme  Silences,"  "the  Destinies  and 
the  Immensities,"  and  "the  Eternities,"  and  that  he 
is  apt  to  regard  our  Christian  beliefs  as  a  "  stealing 
into  Heaven  by  sticking  ostrich-like  our  head  into 
fallacies  on  earth."  ^  But  beyond  this  we  know 
nothing  positively.  We  are  not  going,  then,  to  write 
him  down  pantheist.  But  he  has  given  us  occasion 
to  say  that  the  tendency  of  much  of  what  he  has 
written  is  pantheistical.  He  does  not,  indeed,  say 
anything  so  offensive  on  the  subject  of  Christianity, 
as  his  admirer,  Mr.  Emerson.  He  never  speaks  of 
it  as  "  an  Eastern  monarchy,  built  by  indolence  and 
fear,"  nor  charges  it  with  the  radical  defect  of  dwelling 
with  noxious  exaggeration  about  the  person  of  Jesus. ^ 
But  we  are  at  a  loss  to  gather  any  better  religion  from 
his   pages    than   a   kind   of   man-worship.      He   sees 

^  Life  of  Sterling. 

^  Emerson's  Address  to  a  Senior  Class  of  Divinity. 


78  .  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

Godlike   principles    in    human    nature,    especially   is 
great  and  earnest  men,  who  have  made  any  impression 
upon  the  world,  and  he  falls  down  himself,  and  calls 
upon    others    to    fall   down    and    do   them   homage. 
Moses    and    Zoroaster,    Jesus   Christ    and    Mahomet, 
Saul  of  Tarsus   and  Paul   the   apostle,  were,  though 
not  in  the  same  degree,   alike  divinely-inspired  men. 
His  hero-worship  points  to  the  Emerson  doctrine  of 
the  soul.     He  says  virtually,  what  the  American  says 
openly,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  nature  suffers 
perversion  in  being  attributed  to  one  or  two  persons, 
and  denied  to  others.     God  in  man,  not  exclusively 
in  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  but  God  in  every  man  in 
whom  appear  greatness  and  earnestness,  seems  to  be 
the    religion    of   this    hero-worship.      Literature,    in 
short,  with  him  is  religion ;  and  "  the  true  sovereign 
souls"  of  literature,  the   Goethes  and  so  on,  are  the 
true  prophets   and   Gospel  preachers.     The   contents 
of  religion  are  accordingly  regarded  by  the  men  of 
this  school  as  found  within  the  man,  not  coming  to  the 
man  from  without ;    the  soul  is  a  revelation  to  itself 
Emerson  has  said,  "it  is  not  instruction,  but  provoca- 
tion, that  I  can  receive  from  another  soul.     What  he 
announces,  I  must  find  true  in  me,  or  wholly  reject ; 
and  on  his  word,  or  as  his  second,  be  he  who  he  may, 
I  can  accept  nothing."     And  says  Mr.  Carlyle :   "the 
Maker's  Laws,  whether  they  are  promulgated  in  Sinai 
thunder,  to  the  ear  or  imagination,  or  quite  otherwise 
promulgated,    are   the   Laws   of    God  ;    transcendent, 
everlasting,   imperatively  demanding  obedience   from 
all  men.     This,  without  any  thunder,  or  with  never  so 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE   DIVINE    PERSONALITY;  79 

much  thunder,  thou,  if  there  be  any  soul  left  in  thee, 
canst  know  of  a  truth.  The  Universe,  I  say,  is  made 
by  Law ;  the  great  Soul  of  the  world  is  just  and  not 

unjust Rituals,  Liturgies,  Credos,  Sinai  thunder: 

I  know  more  or  less  the  history  of  these ;  the  rise, 
progress,  decline  and  fall  of  these.  Can  thunder 
from  all  the  thirty-two  azimuths,  repeated  daily  for 
centuries  of  years,  make  God's  Laws  more  Godlike  to 
me  ?  Brother,  no.  Perhaps  I  am  grown  to  be  a  man 
now  ;  and  do  not  need  the  thunder  and  the  terror  any 
longer  !  Perhaps  I  am  above  being  frightened  ;  per- 
haps it  is  not  fear,  but  reverence  alone,  that  shall  now 
lead  me  ! — Revelations,  Inspirations  ?  Yes  ;  and  thy 
own  god-created  soul ;  dost  thou  not  call  that  a  '  reve- 
lation ?'  "  He  tells  us  that  religion  is  "  no  Morrison's 
Pill  from  without,"  but  a  clearing  of  the  Inner  Light 
or  Moral  Conscience,  a  reawakening  of  our  own- 
selves  from  within  ;  the  world  has  looked  to  the  reve- 
lation without,  but  it  was  "  when  its  beard  was  not 
grown  as  now."^  And,  with  a  sneer  at  the  old  churches 
and  the  old  creeds,  he  says :  "  What  the  light  of 
your  mind,  which  is  the  direct  inspiration  of  the 
Almighty,  pronounces  incredible, — that,  in  God's 
name,  leave  uncredited ;  at  your  peril  do  not  try 
believing  that."^  Where  such  talk  as  this  is  indulged 
in,  the  law  and  the  testimony  is  very  little  valued. 
Mr.  Carlyle,  accordingly,  is  disposed  to  make  sincerity 
or  earnestness  the  test  of  truth  and  moral  greatness. 
Christianity  is  thus  reduced  from  its  high  position  as 

'  Carlyle's  Past  and  Present,  pp.  307—312. 
*  Life  of  Sterling,  p.  78. 


80  •  PANTHEISM  ;    OB, 

the  only  true  religion,  to  a  level  witli  the  other  religions 
of  the  earth,  and  what  a  man  honestly  believes,  and 
really  practises,  is  counted  a  good  orthodox  creed.     The 
revelation   is   made  within   the  man,  and   the    Outer 
Light  is  respected  only  in  so  far  as  it  agrees  with  the 
Inner  Light.     All  this  comes  from  a  dreamy,  exagger- 
ated   notion    about    the    human    soul.     Mr.    Carlyle 
does  not  say,  with  Proudhon  and  Emerson,  that  the 
highest  being  is  man,  and  thus  make  theology  anthro- 
pology, but  much  of  what  he  does  say  looks  in  that 
direction.     And  his  style  of  expression  is  frequently 
such  as  to  lead  many  of  his  indiscriminating  admirers 
to   that  position,  or   to   strengthen   those   in  it  who 
already  occupy  it.     He  does  not  stop  with  scowling 
upon   the   formalism   of  the   age,    and   calling    upon 
men  to  be  honest,  earnest,  and  active,  but  the  scowl 
seems    to    be    turned    towards    Christianity   and   its 
evidences  as  a  body  of  fact  lying  without.     He  is  not 
satisfied  with  a  natural  reverence  for  what  is  great 
and  good  in  any  of  our  race,  but  the  great  with  him 
becomes  Divine  or   Godlike.     In   a  mighty   intellect 
we  recognize  the  presence  and  power  of  the  Divinity. 
And   for  such  he  claims  something   like   worship  or 
religious    admiration.*    His    hero-worship    is    just    a 
kind  of  intellectual  pantheism.     It   is   preaching  up, 
though  in  a  somewhat  different  way  from  the  men  of 
the  Emerson  school,  the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  of 
the  soul.     Much  as  Mr.  Carlyle  is  to  be  admired  for 
his  original  vigorous  thinking,  his  liberal  and  indepen- 
dent cast  of  mind,  and  his  wish  to  raise  up  among 
us  an  earnest  race  of  men,  we  cannot  but  deprecate 


THE  DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  81 

the  religious  tendency  of  a  great   deal   that   he  has 
written,  as  pantheistical. 

"  The  result,"  says  Professor  Garbett,^  "  is  brieflj 
this.  The  human  mind  has  wakened  into  a  mighty 
thrilling  consciousness  of  its  collective  ca'pacitij  ;  it  haa 
gathered  up  into  one  great  unity  and  organized 
humanity,  all  individual  intellects  and  hearts,  all 
genius  and  all  inspiration ;  and  exulting  in  this  great 
corporate  life,  and  bounding  pulse,  thus  identified  with 
it,  it  is  drunk  with  pride  and  worships  itself  In  its 
own  depths  it  believes  all  life  and  knowledge  to  lie ; 
the  meaning  of  all  outward  utterances  and  phenomena, 
and  the  self-evolved  solution  of  all  mysteries  in  hea- 
ven and  earth.  Before  the  chancery  of  its  own  sub- 
jective laws  and  arbitrary  requirements,  all  objective 
truth  is  called  to  judgment.  It  is  itself  God  in  fact, 
and  the  universe  is  its  product  and  its  mirror."  We 
are  reminded  of  Tennyson's  truthful  and  beautiful  de- 
scription of  mere  intellectual  knowledge : 

"  What  is  she,  cut  from  love  and  faith, 
But  some  wild  Pallas  from  the  brain 

"  Of  Demons  ?  fiery  hot  to  burst 
All  barriers  in  her  onward  race 
For  power.     Let  her  know  her  place  ; 
She  is  the  second,  not  the  first. 

"  A  higher  hand  must  make  her  mild, 
If  all  be  not  in  vain  ;  and  guide 
Her  footsteps,  moving  side  by  side 
With  wisdom,  like  the  younger  child  : 

"  For  she  is  earthly  of  the  mind, 

But  Wisdom  heavenly  of  the  soul."* 

'  See  an  admirable  sermon  on  the   Personality  of  God,  preached 
before  the  University  of  Oxford.  *  In  Memoriam,  p.  177 

6 


82  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

We  conclude  by  taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  some  of 
the  bearings  of  this  form  of  infidelity,  and  with  some 
remarks  in  disproof  of  it.  The  doctrine  of  an  imper- 
sonal God,  as  we  have  seen,  lies  at  its  basis.  The  uni- 
verse is  the  divinity,  and  men  themselves,  as  "  God-in- 
toxicated," mingle  with  it.  Out  of  this  fundamental 
idea  rise  the  following  : 

1.  Creation^  with  the  pantheist,  is  not  a  free  act,  but 
an  inevitable  necessity.  It  is  not  a  complete  effect,  but 
a  process  that  is  going  on  eternally.  Hegel  says,  God 
did  not  create  the  world,  he  is  eternally  creating  it. 
Creation  is  God  passing  into  activity,  but  neither 
suspended  nor  exhausted  in  the  act.  Anaximander 
said  substantially  the  same  thing  ages  before  him. 
And  Victor  Cousin  has  repeated  it  after  him.  "  The 
distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  Deity,"  says  the 
French  philosopher,  "  being  an  absolute  creative 
force,  which  cannot  but  pass  into  activity,  it  follows, 
not  that  the  creation  is  possible,  but  that  it  is  neces- 
sary." And  the  men  of  the  Emerson  school  tell  us, 
that  the  world  is  "  a  projection  of  God  in  the  uncon- 
scious." Pantheism  is  thus  fatalistic.  We,  according 
to  enlightened  reason  and  Scriptural  truth,  have  been 
wont  to  believe  that  God  existed  independently,  from 
eternit)^,  in  a  state  of  absolute  perfection,  and  that,  of 
his  own  good  pleasure,  he  called  the  universe  into 
being.  Moses  began  his  historical  narrative  by  de- 
claring, "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth ;"  and  he  suns:,  "  Before  the  mountains 
were  brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the 
earth  and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to  ever 


THE    DENIAL    OP    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  83 

lasting,  thou  art  God."  The  pious  in  all  ages,  on 
looking  over  the  creation,  have  said,  "  Our  God  made 
the  heavens,"  And  the  heavenly  inhabitants  cry, 
"  Thou  hast  created  all  things,  and  for  thy  pleasure 
they  are  and  were  created."  But,  according  to  the 
pantheist,  this  is  all  a  delusion.  The  Divine  free-will  is 
a  nonentity.  Creation  is  but  the  inevitable  develop- 
ment of  the  one  Being  that  is  beneath  all  and  in  all. 
Thus  are  falsified  all  thoge  clear  marks  of  design  in 
the  universe  on  which  men  have  looked  for  ages,  the 
world  is  robbed  of  all  its  moral  grandeur,  the  holy 
emotions  of  man's  religious  nature  are  repressed,  and 
he  has  nothing  to  behold  but  a.  creation  that  has 
sprung  from  fate  and  necessity,  and  nothing  to  think 
of  behind  the  whole,  but  an  absolute  creative  force 
ever  passing,  not  from  a  moral  but  a  physical  necessity, 
into  activity.  We  may  theoretically  distinguish  pan- 
theism from  atheism,  but  assuredly  the  man  who 
looks  upon  the  universe,  and  says  that  it  is  "a 
remoter  and  inferior  incarnation  of  God,"^  or  that  it 
is  God  necessarily  passing  into  action,  is  as  much 
without  God  in  the  world,  as  the  man  who  ascribes 
everything  to  mechanical  forces,  and  says  there  is  no 
God. 

2.  Pantheism  inevitably  destroys  all  moral  distinctions^ 
and  makes  man  irresponsible.  "Evil  and  good  are 
God's  right  hand  and  left,"  is  the  doctrine  of  some  of 
our  popular  literature.'  And  if  the  whole  phenomena 
of  the   universe   be  one  chain  of  necessary  develop- 

»  Emerson's  Nature,  p.  53.  "  Bailej's  Festus,  Proem.,  p.  vii. 


84  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

ment,  if  man  and  his  actions  are  strictly  inevitable 
pulsations  of  the  one  great  source  of  being,  then  what 
is  properly  called  moral  evil  has  no  existence.  And 
the  Emerson  school  tells  us  that  it  lives  only  in  dog- 
matic theology.  "  Evil,  according  to  old  philosophers," 
says  the  author  of  the  "  Representative  Men,"^  "  is 
good  in  the  making.  That  pure  malignity  can  exist, 
is  the  extreme  proposition  of  unbelief.  It  is  not  to 
be  entertained  by  a  rational  agent ;  it  is  atheism ;  it 
is  the  last  profanation.  .  .  .  The  divine  effort  is  never 
relaxed ;  the  carrion  in  the  sun  will  convert  itself  to 
grass  and  flowers ;  and  man,  though  in  brothels,  or 
jails,  or  on  gibbets,  is  on  his  way  to  all  that  is  good 
and  true."  This  may  accord  with  the  "generous 
spirit  of  the  Indian  Vishnu,"  but  .Christianity  and  it 
are  wide  as  the  poles  asunder.  The  "  Festus"  of  Mr. 
Bailey,  a  poem  of  great  power  and  of  a  religious  spirit, 
is  pervaded  by  this  bad  pantheistic  theology.  The 
following  is  but  a  specimen  : — 

"  The  soul  is  but  an  organ,  and  it  hath 
No  power  of  good  and  evil  in  itself, 
More  than  the  eye  hath  power  of  light  or  dark. 
God  fitted  it  for  good ;  and  evil  is 
Good  in  another  way  we  are  not  skilled  in."' 

Hence  the  notion  that  all  religions  are  good,  but 
that  Christianity  is  the  best.  And  the  conclusion  : 
"  all  souls  shall  be  in  God,  and  shall  be  God,  and 
nothino;  but  God,  be."^  Dr.  Strauss  moves  in  the 
same  plane,  though  far  a-head,  when  he  says :  "  hu- 
man kind  is  impeccable,  for  the  progress  of  its  de- 

'  P.  68,  "  Swedenborg ;  or,  the  Mystic."  '  Festus,  p.  48. 

'  Festus,  p.  109. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  85 

velopment  is  irreproacliable.  Pollution  cleaves  only  to 
the  individual.  It  does  not  reach  the  race  and  its 
history.  The  human  race  is  the  Christ,  the  God- 
made  man,  the  sinless  one,  that  dies,  rises  again, 
and  mounts  into  the  heavens."^  The  consciousness 
of  guilt  becomes,  on  this  system,  a  delusion.  The 
sense  of  responsibility,  Avhich  is  a  fact  in  the  natu- 
ral history  of  man,  is  belied.  And  that  voice,  which 
«;omes  from  the  recesses  of  our  moral  nature,  point- 
ing us  from  a  judge  within  the  breast  to  a  judge 
f^ithout  and  above,  is  silenced.  That  God  is  ever 
educing  good  from  evil  is  true,  and  that  the  ministry 
of  evil,  mysterious  though  it  be,  is  made  under  hia 
benign  supremacy  to  subserve  most  important  pur- 
poses, agrees  at  once  with  experience  and  Scripture. 
But  that  evil  has  no  positive  existence,  that  it  is  only 
^ood  in  another  way,  is  as  repugnant  to  our  moral 
eentiments  as  it  is  opposed  to  Christianity.  We  will 
persist  in  calling  this  course  of  conduct  bad,  and  that 
opposite  course  good ;  and  can  never  act  on  the  belief 
that  both  were  alike  things  of  fate  and  necessity,  or 
that  each  agent  is  a  structure  formed  by  inevitable 
laws,  and  part  or  particle  of  God.  When  this  creed 
prevails,  the  foundations  of  the  earth  will  be  out  of 
course.  Only  let  this  doctrine  leaven  the  mass  of  a 
community,  and  the  result  will  be  a  deluge  of  sen 
suality  and  crime. 

3.   This  system  shuts  out  Prayer.     Man  will  worship. 
Here  the  object  of  worship  is  self     And  if  the  soul 
knows  no  persons,  and  is  itself  "  wiser  than  the  whole 
"  Leben  Jesu,  (last  chap.) 


86  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

world,"  ^  as  the  tliorougli-going  pantheist  maintains,  it 
were  folly  to  go  out  of  itself  for  resources  either  in 
the  way  of  a  rule  of  duty  or  of  spiritual  influences. 
Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mariner"  went  much  too  far 
when  he  said : 

"  He  prayetli  well  who  loveth  well 

Both  man,  and  bird,  and  beast. 
He  prayeth  best  wlio  loveth  best 

All  things  both  great  and  small : 
For  the  dear  God,  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all." 

But  Mr.  Emerson  and  his  school  go  much  farther, 
"  As  soon  as  the  man  is  at  one  with  God,  he  will  not 
beg.  He  will  then  see  prayer  in  all  action.  The 
prayer  of  the  farmer,  kneeling  in  his  field  to  weed  it ; 
the  prayer  of  the  rower,  kneeling  with  the  stroke  of 
his  oar,  are  true  prayers,  heard  throughout  nature, 
though  for  cheap  ends."  Mr.  Theodore  Parker  who, 
though  not  a  professed  pantheist,  pretends  to  have 
found  pantheism  in  the  writings  of  John  the  Evan- 
gelist, discourses  in  a  similar  way.  Speaking  of  what 
he  calls  the  happy  condition  of  the  religious  man,  he 
tells  us  that  his  "religion  demands  no  particular  ac- 
tions, forms,  or  modes  of  thought :  the  man's  plough- 
ing is  holy  as  his  prayer — his  daily  bread  as  the  smoke 
of  his  sacrifice ;  his  home  sacred  as  his  temple ;  his 
work-day  and  his  sabbath  are  alike  God's  day.  His 
priest  is  the  holy  spirit  within  him.""  And  if  Mr. 
Carlyle  does  not  mean  to  countenance  this  pantheistic 
dogma,  why,  in  "The  Modern  Worker,"  does  he  so 

*  Emerson.  "  Parker's  Discourses,  p.  110. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    TUE    DIVINE    PEIISONALITY.  87 

frequently  talk  thus :  "  Work  is  of  a  religious  nature.... 
All  true  work  is  sacred ;  in  all  true  work,  were  it  but 
true  hand-labor,  there  is  something  of  divineness. 
Labor,  wide  as  the  earth,  has  its  summit  in  heaven. 
Sweat  of  the  brow ;  and  up  from  that  to  sweat  of  the 
brain,  sweat  of  the  heart ;  which  includes  all  Kepler 
calculations,  Newton  meditations,  all  sciences,  all 
spoken  epics,  all  acted  heroisms,  martyrdoms, — up  to 
that  '  Agony  of  bloody  sweat,'  which  all  men  have 
called  divine !  0  brother,  if  this  is  not  '  worship,' 
then  I  say,  the  more  pity  for  worship  ;  for  this  is  the 
noblest  thing  yet  discovered  under  God's  sky."  ^ 
No  doubt  all  this  will  be  hailed  by  many  of  the  liS' 
teners  and  readers  of  Emerson,  Parker,  and  Carlyle. 
And  there  may  be  here  and  there,  "  the  poor  day- 
laborer,  the  weaver  of  your  coat,  the  sewer  of  your 
shoes,"  who,  having  no  inclination  for  prayer,  may  like 
to  be  told  that  "  no  man  has  worked,  or  can  work, 
except  religiously,"  and  that  he  shall,  "return  liomt 
in  honor,  to  his  far  distant  home  in  honor."  ^  But 
it  will  not  do  for  the  millions  who  fail  to  attain  to 
such  a  delirium  of  soul  as  these  poetic-philosophers, 
and  whom  they  will  never  get  to  believe  that  the 
fountain  of  all  good  is  in  themselves,  that  thejr 
are  divine  pilgrims  in  nature,  and  that  everything 
attends  their  steps.  No.  Men's  minds,  which  have 
not  been  spoiled  by  a  philosophy  falsely  so  called, 
will  ever,  as  aforetime,  go  out  in  a  felt  sense  of  want. 
They  will  cry,  in  spite  of  all  this  delirious  teaching, 
"  who  will  shew  us  any  good  ?"  And  experience  will 
»  Past  and  Present,  pp.  268,  271.  '  Ibid,  pp.  278,  272. 


88  PANTHEISM  ;    OE, 

continue  to  attest  that  man  will  never  possess  the 
satisfying  good,  until  as  a  heggar  he  say,  "  Lord,  lift 
thou  up  the  light  of  thy  countenance  upon  us." 

4.  What  becomes  of  individual  immortality  in  such 
a  system  as  pantheism?  It  is  absorbed  and  lost. 
Men  in  all  ages,  even  in  the  absence  of  revelation, 
have  yearned  for  existence  beyond  death  and  the 
grave.  The  gospel,  by  bringing  life  and  immortality 
to  light,  has  answered  these  yearnings.  So  that  with 
all  our  moral  and  religious  impressions,  is  blended  the 
conviction  of  our  individual  existence  being  prolonged 
on  the  other  side  of  the  tomb.  We  are  conscious  of 
our  personal  being  now,  our  moral  nature  points  to  the 
continuance  of  our  conscious  personality  hereafter ; 
and  an  authoritative  revelation  has  not  only  set  its 
seal  to  the  truth  of  the  personal  immortality  of  man, 
but  shed  an  illumination  all  its  own  on  the  grave  and 
the  world  beyond.  But  life  with  the  pantheist  is  a 
dream,  and  death  is  absorption.  It  is  like  the  return 
of  a  ray  of  light  to  the  sun  whence  it  emanated,  or  a 
drop  of  water  to  the  great  ocean  from  which  it  origin- 
ally came.  The  disciples  of  a  system  do  not  always 
go  to  the  full  length  of  the  system  itself.  And  so  it 
may  happen  that  some  professed  pantheists  have  not 
discarded  the  belief  of  personal  immortality.  But 
Each  is  the  legitimate  issue  of  the  system,  and  such 
will  actually  be  its  result  when  descending  from  the 
■chools,  it  becomes  the  faith  of  the  common  people. 
With  the  pantheists  of  the  East,  the  csnsciousness  of 
separate  existence  is  an  illusion,  which  in  a  little  time 
will  pass  away.     The  souls  of  men  being  portions  of 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  89 

the  divine  essence,  "  parts  or  particles  of  God,"  will 
ultimately  return  to  tlieir  source,  so  that,  apart  from 
the  great  substance,  there  will  be  no  conscious  exist- 
ence. Whatever  might  be  Hegel's  individual  view  of 
the  future  state  of  man,  Hegelianism,  in  this  respect, 
is  thoroughly  pantheistic.  "  On  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality," remarks  Mr.  MorelV  "  Hegel  has  said 
but  little,  and  that  little  by  no  means  satisfactory." 
But  it  is  a  part  of  his  philosophy,  tha4,  the  Divine  Be- 
ins:  is  necessitated  to  send  forth  existences  and  to 
absorb  them  again.  Reinhard,  who  is  deemed  a  fair 
and  competent  judge  of  the  system,  says,  that  "  accord- 
ing to  Hegel's  speculative  decisions,  the  individual  per- 
sonality of  man  is  perishable  in  its  very  nature.  In 
his  view,  reason  demands  that  the  thinking  individual 
should  acknowledge  the  nothingness  of  his  individual 
essence,  and  willingly  meet  self-annihilation  in  view 
of  his  entering  into  that  universal  substance  which, 
like  Chronos  in  the  old  mythology,  devours  all  its  own 
offspring."^  Strauss  and  others  of  the  same  school 
have  gone  this  length.  His  words  are,  "  a  life  beyond 
the  grave  is  the  last  enemy  which  speculative  criticism 
has  to  oppose,  and,  if  possible,  to  conquer."^  Here, 
as  in  some  other  points,  the  extremes  of  sensational- 
ism and  idealism  meet.  The  atheist  and  the  pantheist 
shake  hands  as  believers  in  the  same  black  creed. 
Danton,  on  his  trial,  said,  "My  name  is  Danton,  my 
residence  will  soon  be  in  annihilation,  my  name  will 
live  in  the  pantheon  of  history."     And  the  pantheist 

*  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  190. 

'  Dr.  Beard's  Voices  of  the  Church,  p.  12.     ^  Glaubenslelire. 


90  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

says,  let  us  dream  on  the  day  of  our  existence  here, 
for  the  night  is  coming  when  self  must  return  to  the 
great  ocean  of  being  and  there  be  lost  forever.  Such 
are  the  issues  of  a  system  that  denies  the  living  Per- 
sonal God. 


1.  In  proof  of  the  personality  of  God,  we  might,  in 
the  first  place,  argue  from  our  own  personality.  That 
we  are  real,  intelligent,  and  responsible  persons,  is  a 
matter  of  consciousness.  There  is  a  spirit  in  man. 
He  has  understanding,  will,  moral  sentiment,  a  power 
to  choose  between  good  and  evil,  and  he  knows  it.  It 
is  this  which  gives  us  a  decided  pre-eminence  over  the 
whole  visible  creation.  It  separates  at  an  immeasura- 
ble distance  from  us  the  flowers  of  the  earth  however 
beautiful,  the  stars  of  heaven  however  bright,  and 
the  beasts  and  birds  however  wise.  Were  it  pos- 
sible for  us  to  be  divested  of  our  complete  per- 
sonality as  moral,  intelligent,  individual  beings,  the 
crown  would  fall  from  our  heads,  and  we  would 
descend  in  the  scale  of  earthly  creatures.  Personal- 
ity— ^living,  moral,  and  intellectual  personality — such 
as  man's,  is  clearly,  then,  a  perfection.  And  in  the 
very  existence  of  such  personal  beings  we  have  an 
argument  for  a  Personal  God.  Let  it  be  supposed 
that  by  intuition,  or  argumentation,  or  both,  we  had 
come  simply  to  the  knowledge  of  a  First  Cause ;  it 
is  evident  that  the  conception  of  the  possession  of 
perfect  personality  by  Him  would  render  Him  a  more 
glorious  Being  than  the  want  of  it.  And  this  being 
the  case,  he  must  possess  it,  for  our  conceptions  of 


THE   DENIAL   OF   THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  91 

the  greatest  Being  in  the  universe,  can  never  surpass, 
but  must  always  come  short  of  the  reality.      "It  is 
clear,"  says  Professor  Garbett,  "that  anything  which 
does  not  possess  personality,  or  possesses  it  in  a  low 
degree,  whether  it  be  like  the  earth,  however  exq-ui- 
sitely   modelled   into  beauty  and  sublimity  manifold, 
or   the   beasts  ©f  the  field,  however  marvellous  their 
living   powers,  must   be  inferior  to  ourselves.     And, 
therefore.  Almighty  God  must  be  a  person   likewise. 
For  if  not.  He  would  be  inferior  to  ourselves,  contrary 
to  the   supposition  on  which  we  go.     And  the  very 
name   imports   that,    dri  nor'  tan,   He   is,  at   all   events, 
the  highest  of  beings.     You  may,  indeed,  if  you  please, 
abandon  the  intellect  to   the   lawless   tyranny  of  im- 
agination! .  .  .  Drunk  with  the  maddening   wine  of 
intellectual   licentiousness    and    creative    speculation, 
you  may  rave  eloquently  of  a  Being  of  infinite  power, 
who   pours  forth   out   of  his   exhaustless   bosom,  un- 
fathomable as  the  abyss  of  space  itself,  all  glory,  all 
living   things,    multitudinous   and   diversified  beyond 
created   arithmetic,    such  as   fill  the  universe.      And 
yet,  by  the  same  right  of  unreason  and  self-will,  you 
may  lay  it  down  that  He  has  not  a  self-consciousness, 
nor   a  choice,  nor  anything,  in   short,  of  that  which 
makes  us,  to  our  fellow  men,  objects  of  love  and  hope, 
of  dread  and  hatred,  of  joy  and  of  misery.      And  you 
may   then,    piling    postulate   on    postulate    into    the 
empty  air,  till  you  reach,  in  haze  and  mist,  the  limbo 
of  utter  unreality,  set  up  this  blind,  and  dumb,  and 
deaf  abomination,  with  a  crown  upon  its  head,  on  the 
throne   of  Him   who  is,  and  was,  and  is  to  be — the 


92  PANTHEISM  ;    OR, 

living  JeKovah.  .  .  But  this  is  not  a  God,  according  to 
the  supposition  ;  and,  of  course,  is  not  a  living,  loving, 
avenging,  awful  Deity.  Why  in  such  a  case,  though 
the  spirit  within  us  is  clothed  in  perishable  dust  and 
ashes,  we  should  be  far  superior,  in  the  order  of 
intelligent  being,  to  such  a  Deity,  with  all  his  immen- 
sity."^ 

2.  Men,  in  general,  feel,  in  the  most  solemn  and 
affecting  moments  of  their  lives,  that  God  is  a  real  Person. 
Demonstration  is  not  necessary.  Consciousness  and 
inward  experience,  more  powerfully  than  any  argu- 
mentation, attest  it.  This  truthful  evidence  is  given 
forth  at  times  from  the  bosoms  of  the  worst  and  the 
best  of  men.  How  true  to  nature  are  such  parables 
as  those  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  the  Pharisee  and 
the  Publican.  And  the  most  life-like  feature  in  each 
picture,  is,  when  the  Prodigal  coming  to  himself 
exclaimed,  "  Father,  I  have  sinned  ;"  and  the  Publican, 
conscious  of  his  burden  of  guilt,  cried,  "  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  The  very  cry  for  help 
which,  under  an  irresistible  impulse,  ascends  from 
the  human  soul  when  in  imminent  danger  or  stricken 
under  a  sense  of  sin,  is  a  testimony  of  conscience  to 
the  personality  of  God.  It  is  the  witness  of  unso- 
phisticated nature  to  the  truth  that  He  is  a  Being 
who  can  save  from  danger,  who  has  displeasure  to 
be  dreaded,  and  mercy  to  be  sought  after.  The 
mind,  then,  unrestrained  by  philosophical  theories 
or  other  artificial  hindrances,  recognizes  Him  in  the 
personality  of  the  judge,  the  sovereign,  or  the  saviour. 

'  The  Personality  of  God,  pp.  26—29. 


THE    DENIAL    OF    THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  93 

The  consciousness  of  the  most  excellent  ones  of  the 
earth,  gives  a  yet  clearer  evidence  for  the  Divine 
personal  existence  and  attributes.  Men  who  have 
been  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  their  mind,  and  who 
long  for  closer  union  with  the  best  and  greatest  Being 
in  the  universe,  never  think  of  Him  as  a  substance 
"  stretched  uncouthly  through  infinite  space,"  which 
has  only  arrived  at  self-consciousness  in  their  own 
souls.  But  they  thirst  for  God,  for  the  living 
Grod.  They,  clothed  with  humility,  bend  the  knee, 
and,  with  hearts  uplifted  to  heaven,  say,  in  filial  con- 
fidence, "Abba  Father."  They  gather  up,  as  it  were, 
into  one,  all  the  glorious  attributes  by  which  He  is 
distinguished,  and  contemplate  Him  as  Creator  and 
Lord,  Father  and  Friend,  Judge  and  Saviour.  This 
we  regard  as  real  evidence,  uttered  from  amid  the 
indestructible  elements  of  man's  moral  nature,  for  the 
perfect  personality  of  God. 

3.  The  Sacred  Scriptures  througJiout  are  full  of  the 
Divine  Fersoncditi/.  Every  page  breathes  or  burns 
with  it.  From  the  opening  sentence  of  Genesis  to 
the  closing  chapter  of  Revelation,  in  its  unadorned 
histories  as  well  as  in  its  magnificent  poetry,  in  the 
language  alike  of  its  threatenings  and  its  promises, 
the  Bible  moves  with  the  living  Personal  God.  This 
places  an  impassable  gulf  between  the  religion  of  the 
pantheist  and  that  of  the  Christian.  And  the  Bible 
owes  much  of  its  telling  power  over  men's  Jieart's,  a? 
a  divine  instrument,  to  this  pervading  element  of  per 
sonality.  Be  it  remembered  that  this  is  the  book 
which   has   done   vastly   more   than  all   others  to  re> 


94  pantheism;  or, 

generate  and  elevate  our  race,  and  that,  under  tlie 
agency  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  it  exerts  this  influence  by 
bringing  the  mind  into  contact  with  God,  not  as  a 
vague  immensity,  but  as  a  glorious,  awful,  benignant 
Person  with  whom  we  have  to  do.  The  sinner  has 
been  arrested  in  his  wickedness,  his  spirit  has  quailed 
within  him,  and  he  has  become  a  new  creature,  by 
hearing  the  living  God  of  Holy  Scripture  speak  to 
him  in  solemn  warning  and  melting  invitation.  The 
saint  has  been  refreshed  and  armed  anew  by  the 
thought  that  the  same  Divine  Being  who  clothes  the 
grass  of  the  field,  and  cares  for  the  fowls  of  the  air, 
loves,  as  a  father,  his  own  redeemed  children,  and  sur- 
rounds them  with  his  favor  as  with  a  shield.  Yes: 
the  Spirit,  by  whose  inspiration  the  Word  was  given, 
beareth  witness  with  our  Spirit  to  the  perfect  person- 
ality of  God.  And  cDuld  this  be  separated  from  the 
Bible,  and  a  pantheistic  creed  substituted  in  its  stead, 
it  would  be  as  if  the  sun  had  been  shorn  of  his  beams, 
and  the  ocean  had  lost  his  voice.  "Ye  shall  know,'" 
said  Joshua  to  the  Israelites,  "that  the  living  God  is 
among  you."  "It  is  a  fearful  thing,"  says  Paul,  "to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God."  And  in  such 
winning  words  as  these,  of  which  the  sacred  volume 
is  full,  how  near  does  the  Personality  of  Him  whose 
name  and  nature  are  love,  come  to  the  heart:  "In- 
cline your  ear,  and  come  unto  me ;  hear,  and  your  soul 
shall  live."  "Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth :  for  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none 
else."  The  relational  conception  of  the  Most  High, 
(is  our  Maker   Kino-.  Father,  Saviour,  Judge,  guards 


THE  DENIAL    OF   THE    DIVINE    PERSONALITY.  9S 

US  as  effectually  against  a  pantheistic  view  on  the  one 
hand ;  as  the  absolute  conception  of  Him  does  against 
an  anthropomorphic  view  on  the  other.  Both  con- 
ceptions blend  with  each  other  in  the  Bible.  No 
book  gives  us  such  exalted  ideas  of  the  Infinite  Intel- 
ligence, and  none  is  less  in  harmony  with  the  system 
of  pantheism.  "  It  is  all  in  the  same  spirit :  burning, 
powerful  words  ;  real  above  everything  in  this  world  ; 
piercing,  as  living  words  must  needs  do,  to  the  divid- 
ing of  the  very  hearts  and  reins.  They  have  the  im- 
pression, they  are  stamped  with  the  seal  of  the  living 
God.     The  tetragrammaton  is  on  them."^ 

4.  In  Christ  Jesus  ive  see  the  ahsolute  and  the  personal 
reconciled.  Pantheism  and  anthropomorphism,  though 
traceable  to  the  same  source,  are  two  extremes,  towards 
one  of  which  the  mind,  in  the  absence  of  revelation 
or  in  the  want  of  faith  in  it,  has  ever  shown  a  strong 
tendency.  Men  have  been  apt  either  to  limit  the  In- 
finite, and  think  of  Him  as  being  such  an  one  as 
themselves,  or  to  conceive  of  Him  as  an  infinite  sub- 
stance of  which  all  things  are  but  the  modes  and 
manifestations.  How  to  reconcile  the  personality 
with  the  infinitude  of  the  Divine  nature,  seems  to  be 
one  of  those  sublime  mysteries  pertaining  to  the  Di- 
vine existence  which  unaided  reason  cannot  solve. 
Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  us ;  it  is  high, 
we  cannot  attain  unto  it.  As  principles  of  abstract 
theology  they  may  be  clearly  made  out,  but  really  to 
grasp  them  in  our  religious  belief  as  attributes  of  the 
Almighty,  is  a  great  achievement  of  faith.     The  two 

'  Professor  Garbett's  Discourse,  p.  4-1 


06  PANTHEISM. 

are,  however,  reconciled  before  our  view  in  Him  who  is 
the  Word  made  flesh,  at  once  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Son  of  Man.  The  creation  of  the  world  was  the  work 
of  an  infinite  Being.  The  everlasting  God,  the  Lord, 
is  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And  by  Jesus 
Christ  were  all  things  created,  that  are  in  heaven  and 
that  are  in  earth.  The  redemption  of  the  world  de- 
manded the  interposition  of  Him  who  made  it.  It 
was  Jehovah's  prerogative  to  say,  "Behold  I  create 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth."  And  in  Emmanuel, 
God  in  our  nature,  God  with  us,  we  see  the  Redeemer 
of  man.  The  judgment  of  the  world  is  an  act  of  the 
Absolute.  None  else  is  judge  but  God.  And  the 
Son  of  Man,  coming  in  his  glory,  occupies  the  judg- 
ment throne.  The  Divine  Being,  without  any  limita- 
tion of  his  absolute  perfections,  is  thus  revealed  in 
the  person  of  Christ.  Great  indeed  is  the  mystery  of 
godliness.  The  incarnation  is  a  stupendous  fact  that 
surpasses  reason,  for  whatever  pertains  to  the  Divine 
nature  must  be  incomprehensible  by  the  human  mind. 
But  it  contains  in  itself  the  solution  of  the  mysterious 
problem  how  the  absolute  and  the  personal  agree  in 
One.  And  with  all  its  mysteriousness,  it  becomes  a 
resting  truth  to  the  minds  of  men  and  angels,  when 
attempting  to  grasp  the  idea  of  an  infinite  and  yet  a 
personal  God.  The  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Juda,  the 
Root  of  David,  has  opened  the  book  and  loosed  the 
seals  thereof.  And  happy  the  mind  that  returns  from 
its  wanderings,  that  leaves  off  raving  about  a  vague 
immensity  which  it  can  neither  love  nor  fear,  and  rests 
in  Jehovah-Jesus,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT, 
OR   NATURALISM. 

Distinctive  characteristic  of  Naturalism — Denounces  every  idea  of 
Divine  interposition — Not  peculiar  to  any  age  or  country — Broadly 
manifested  in  some  works  on  Physical  and  Moral  Science :  System 
of  Auguste  Comte — "Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of  Crea- 
tion "  —  Humboldt's  "  Cosmos  "  —  Combe's  "  Constitution  of 
Man" — The  Owen  School — Naturalism  in  the  department  of 
Bible  Theology:  Anti-miracle  School  of  Germany — Spinoza — 
Paulus — Strauss — Miracles  considered — Hume  and  Strauss  alike 
guilty  of  a  petitio  prindpii — Denial  of  Special  Inspiration  of 
Scriptures — Theodore  Parker — Inspiration  viewed  as  a  fact — 
Mr.  Morell's  Position — General  remarks  upon  Naturalism  as  a 
whole — The  idea  of  a  self-sustaining  universe  based  upon  false  anal- 
ogy— Chargeable  with  anthropomorphism — Opposed  to  palpable  evi- 
dence of  Geology — Assigns  no  adequate  cause  for  Christianity 
and  its  effects — Diametrically  opposed  to  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
— Naturalism  unnatural. 

Naturalism,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  rationalism, 
is  distinguishable  enough  from  atheism  and  pantheism. 
The  rationalist  is  distinguished  from  the  atheist  bj 
his  theoretical  belief  of  a  Supreme  Power,  and  he  is 
distinguished  from  the  pantheist  by  his  denial  of  an 
ever-present  and  all-pervading  Divine  energj.  The 
pantheist  says,  God  is  at  hand;    the  rationalist  says, 


98  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

God  is  afar  off.  Pantheism  sees  the  Divine  Being 
in  all  things,  and  confounds  the  Creator  with  the 
creation.  Whereas  naturalism,  though  distinguishing 
Him  from  his  works,  banishes  Him  into  a  distant 
solitude.  It  is  not  essential  to  this  system  that  the 
evidences  of  design  in  proof  of  a  creative  intelligence 
be  denied,  however  much  it  may  tend  in  that  direc- 
tion, and  though  many  of  its  abettors  may  have  gone 
that  length.  But  its  distinctive  characteristic,  as  a 
form  of  infidelity,  is,  that  while  admitting  the  world 
to  have  been  originally  created  by  God,  it,  as  it  were, 
extrudes  him  from  that  world,  by  reducing  it  to  a 
self-sustained  mechanism,  and  by  resolving,  what  are 
generally  understood  by  the  works  of  Providence,  into 
a  regularly  successive  series  of  necessary  develop- 
ments. The  seed,  having  the  vegetative  power  in 
itself,  is  cast  by  the  husbandman  into  the  soil,  and 
there,  aided  merely  by  natural  agencies,  it  is  left  to 
develop  itself  into  the  full-grown  plant  or  tree.  The 
watch,  complete  in  its  wheels  and  mainspring,  is 
wound  up,  and  continues  to  move,  though  ever  so 
far  distant  from  the  maker.  The  ship-builder,  having 
finished  and  launched  the  ship,  leaves  it  entirely  to 
the  care  of  the  sailors.^  Such  are  specimens  of  some 
of  the  analogies  by  which  men  would  exclude  God 
from  his  own  world,  and  make  the  universe,  if  not 
independent  of  his  creative  power,  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  his  presence  and  control.  The  flilsity  of 
the   analogy  is   obvious,  and  will   be   noticed   by  us 

'  "  Ut  faber  discedit  a  navi  esstructa  et  relinquit  earn  nautis." — 
Melanct.ho7i. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  99 

hereafter.     At  present  we  wish  to  get  as  full-sized  a 
view,  as  possible,  of  the  system  itself 

Men,  whose  piety  is  both  rational  and  scriptural, 
have  been  accustomed  to  consider  God  as  continually 
present  in  the  world  with  the  same  power  by  which 
he  made  it.  They  reckon  up  no  less  numerous 
indications  of  a  designing  providential  agency  than 
of  an  original  creating  intelligence,  and  feel  that  they 
would  be  as  much  warranted  to  deny  the  presence 
and  power  of  God  in  creating,  as  to  deny  his  presence 
and  power  in  sustaining  and  controlling.  The  heavens 
and  the  earth,  in  their  estimation,  furnish  as  clear 
and  impressive  tokens  of  the  agency  of  the  Divine 
Preserver  as  of  the  Divine  Creator.  The  seasons  roll 
on  in  beautiful  harmony,  but  God  is  there  present 
as  the  source  of  that  harmony.  We  may  speak  of 
the  universe  as  a  huge  machine  moved  by  natural 
powers  or  mechanical  laws,  but  it  is  the  finger  of  God 
that  touches  the  subordinate  agencies  which  move  the 
whole.  He  acts  in  every  place,  upon  all  things,  and 
throughout  all  time.  And  but  for  his  pervading  in- 
fluence, the  world  would  become  an  inactive  mass, 
without  form  and  void,  and  darkness  would  again 
cover  the  face  of  the  deep.  The  language  of  Thomson, 
according  to  the  creed  of  Christian  piety,  is  as  philo- 
sophically true  as  it  is  poetically  beautiful : — 

"  But  wandering  oft  with  brute  unconscious  gaze, 
Man  marks  not  Thee,  marks  not  the  mighty  hand, 
That,  ever -busy,  Avheels  the  silent  Spheres ; 
Works  in  the  secret  deep  ;  shoots,  steaming,  thence 
The  fair  profusion  that  o'erspreads  the  spring : 
Flings  from  the  sun  direct  the  flaming  day ; 


100  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

Feeds  every  creature ;  hurls  the  tempest  forth ; 
And,  as  on  earth  this  grateful  change  revolves, 
With  transport  touches  all  the  springs  of  life." 

This  is  neither  pantheism  nor  naturalism.  It  dis- 
tinguishes the  great  Intelligent  Spirit  from  the  ma- 
terial world  which  he  pervades,  while  it  acknowledges 
his  presence  and  energy  acting  upon  all  secondary 
causes  as  the  primary  action  of  the  whole.  Hence  the 
ample  room  which  such  a  system  opens  for  the  out- 
goings of  a  grateful  and  lofty  devotion.  Hence  its  firm 
faith  in  the  well-attested  Divine  interpositions  of  the 
past,  and  its  expectation  that,  if  need  be,  similar  inter- 
positions will  take  place  in  the  future. 

Naturalism   denies   all    this.      It   denounces    it    as 
the   progeny   of    ignorance    and    fanaticism.     It    de 
molishes   it   at   once,  just   as   a   man   on   awakening, 
demolishes  the    airy   castles   which   he    built   during 
sleep.     If  naturalism  admits  of  a  special  and  super 
natural  interference  at  all,  it  restricts  such  an  interfer 
ence  to  the  original  act  of  creation.     The  Almighty  in 
allowed  to  come  forth,  create,  give  life,  set  in  motion, 
and  look  on  the  scene,  but  afterwards  he  retires,  and 
leaves  the  whole   to   nature   and  nature's  laws.     AU 
the  phenomena  of  matter  and  mind  however  rich  and 
magnificent,  all  the  events  of  history  however  influen- 
tial  and  unprecedented,    all   the    changes   that   have 
taken     place     in    nations    and    individuals    hovirever 
thorough    and    beneficent,    have,    according    io    this 
system,  occurred  in  a  merely  natural  way,  just  ag  the 
engine  speeds  along  the  line  of  rail  by  the  natural 
force  of  steam.     The  poet  spake  with  a  poetic  license 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        101 

or  under  the  hallucination  of  genius,  when,  addressing 
the  God  of  the  seasons,  he  said,  "  The  rolling  year  is 
full  of  Thee."     King  David,  in  a  dark  age,  sang  very 
beautifully  but  not   truly,  when  he  said  to  Jehovah, 
"  Thou   visitest    the    earth,  and    waterest    it :    Thou 
greatly  enrichest  it  with  the  river  of  God,  which  is 
full  of  water :    Thou  preparest  them  corn  when  Thou 
hast  so   provided   for   it:    Thou   makest  it  soft  with 
showers:    thou  blessest  the  springing  thereof     Thou 
crownest  the  year  with  thy  goodness ;    and  thy  paths 
drop   fatness."      Jesus   Christ   merely   accommodated 
himself  to  the  views  and  circumstances  of  his  follow- 
ers, when  he  said  to  them,  "  Behold  the  fowls  of  the 
air :  for  they  sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather 
into  barns;   yet  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them." 
Miracles   are   impossible,  just   because   they   are    un- 
natural.    And  what  in  theology  is  called  the  doctrine 
of  Divine  influence,  is  a  mystery,  a  thing  supernatural, 
and  therefore   not   to   be   believed.      The   rationalist 
traverses  the  wide  fields  of  space,  and  makes  himself 
familiar  with  the  laws  that  regulate  the  movements  of 
suns  and  stars ;    or  he  penetrates  into  the  bowels  of 
the  earth,  and  reads,  amid  its  rocky  beds  and  their 
wreck  of  animal  existence,  the  history  of  a  past  world ; 
but  neither   in  the  heavens  above  nor   in  the  earth 
beneath,  does  he  recognize  the  presence  or  interposi- 
tion of  God.     He  may  admit  that  the  Creator  has  left 
the  impress  of  his  finger  there  from  a  past  eternity, 
but  he  sees  no  such  finger  amid  the  continued  har- 
mony of  the  spheres  on  high,  or  amid  the  convulsions 
and  up-heavings  that  have  taken  place  in  the  depths 


102   •  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE  .  DENIAL 

below.  He  virtually,  if  not  openly,  says,  the  Almighty 
was  once  here  present,  but  He  has  withdrawn  agea 
ago ;  nature  reigns,  and  all  physical  phenomena  are 
the  necessary  result  of  mechanical  laws.  The  ration- 
alist reads  history  too,  but  he  sees  not  God  in  history. 
Its  marvellous  events,  however  unforeseen  by  men, 
however  much  they  startled  and  baffled  the  calcula- 
tion of  the  wise  who  were  contemporaneous  with 
them,  and  however  mighty  and  protracted  have 
been  their  influence  in  succeeding  times,  are  drawn 
by  him  into  that  ordinary  chain  of  modern  develop- 
ment in  which  he  binds  up  all  things.  He  looks 
too  upon  vast  masses  of  men  sunk  in  ignorance 
and  vice,  so  sunk  notwithstanding  the  play  of  many 
influences  upon  them  which  rationalists  deem  bene- 
ficial, and  he  will  admit  any  or  every  agency  into  the 
work  of  their  regeneration  but  the  special  agency  of 
the  Former  of  men's  bodies  and  the  Father  of  men's 
spirits.  "Is  it  not  strange,"  remarks  John  Foster,^ 
"to  observe,  how  carefully  some  philosophers,  who 
deplore  the  condition  of  the  world,  and  profess  to 
expect  its  melioration,  keep  their  speculations  clear 
of  every  idea  of  divine  interposition  ?  No  builders  of 
houses  or  cities  were  ever  more  attentive  to  guard 
against  the  access  of  flood  or  fire.  If  ^e  should  but 
touch  their  prospective  theories  of  improvement,  they 
would  renounce  them  as  defiled  and  fit  only  for 
vulgar  fanaticism.  Their  system  of  Providence  would 
be  profaned  by  the  intrusion  of  the  Almighty.  Man 
is  to  effect  an  apotheosis  for  himself,  by  the  hopeful 

'  Foster's  Essays,  p.  177,  15th  edition. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PilOVlDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  103 

process  of  exhausting  his  corruption.  And  should  it 
take  a  long  series  of  ages,  vices,  and  woes,  to  reach 
this  glorious  attainment,  patience  may  sustain  itself 
the  while  by  the  thought  that  when  it  is  realized,  it 
will  be  burdened  with  no  duty  of  religious  gratitude. 
No  time  is  too  long  to  wait,  no  cost  too  deep  to  incur, 
for  the  triumph  of  proving  that  we  have  no  need  of  a 
Divinity,  regarded  as  possessing  that  one  attribute 
which  makes  it  delightful  to  acknowledge  such  a 
Being,  the  benevolence  that  would  make  us  happy. 
But  even  if  this  noble  self-sufi&ciency  cannot  be  real- 
ized, the  independence  of  spirit  which  has  labored 
for  it  must  not  sink  at  last  into  piety.  This  afflicted 
world,  '  this  poor  terrestrial  citadel  of  man,'  is  to  lock 
its  gates,  and  keep  its  miseries,  rather  than  admit 
the  degradation  of  receiving  help  from  God." 

This  form  of  infidelity  is  no  novelty.  It  is  not 
peculiar  to  any  age  or  country.  And  while  it  may  be 
said  of  other  forms,  that  they  slay  their  thousands, 
it  must  be  said  of  this  that  it  slays  its  ten  thousands. 
This  was  the  doctrine  of  the  ancient  atomists  and 
Epicureans.  They  were  not,  theoretically  considered, 
atheists.  They  believed  in  the  existence  of  the  gods^ 
but  denied  that  they  interfered  with  either  the  phy- 
sical or  moral  concerns  of  the  universe.  Plato  held 
the  doctrine  in  abhorrence,  and  made  it  one  of  the 
three  kinds  of  blasphemy  punishable  in  his  republic 
with  death.  Justin  Martyr,  speaking  of  the  philoso- 
phers in  his  time,  tells  us  they  taught  it  to  be  "  useless 
to  pray  to  God,  since  all  things  recur  according  to 
the   unchangeable   laws   of  an   endless  progression." 


104  naturalism;  or,  the  dental 

Some  of  the  English  deistical  writers  of  the  last 
century,  held  substantially  the  same  infidel  opinion. 
Lord  Herbert,  "the  first  and  purest  of  our  English 
free-thinkers,"  who  lived  in  the  century  preceding, 
includes  the  doctrine  of  Divine  providence  and  the 
duty  of  worshipping  God,  in  his  five  articles  of  reli- 
gion. But  others  of  the  free-thinking  school  advanced 
ahead  of  him,  and  either  denied  that  the  Supreme 
Being  interposed  in  the  affairs  of  men,  or  held  such 
a  vague  idea  of  a  general  providence  as  virtually 
excluded  him  from  the  government  of  the  world. 
Chubb  seems  to  have  maintained  that  God  kept 
aloof  from  human  affairs,  and  that  whatever  happened 
to  men  depended  entirely  upon  secondary  causes. 
Bolingbroke's  idea  of  a  providence  that  regarded 
things  collectively  but  not  individually,  was  such  as 
left  no  room  for  the  special  interposition  of  God  either 
in  the  physical  or  moral  world.  Hume,  in  his  essays 
on  Miracles  and  Providence,  sapped  the  very  founda- 
tions of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  and  would  pre- 
clude us  from  believing  that  the  same  power  which 
created  the  world,  can  continue  to  sustain  it.  The 
French  Encyclopsedists,  who  flourished  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  same  century,  built  the  whole  of 
their  metaphysical  philosophy  upon  the  basis  of  ma- 
terialism, a  system  that  began  by  removing  God  to  a 
distance  from  the .  world,  and  explaining  everything 
by  secondary  causes,  and  that  ended  in  excluding  him 
altogether  from  their  conceptions,  and  elevating  nature 
to  his  throne.  Men  of  science  and  literature  were 
then  resolutely  bent  on  disregarding  ev(;rything  that 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.         105 

seemed  to  admit  tlie  interference  or  idea  of  God,  and 
on  shutting  themselves  up  in  a  system  of  blind  fatalism 
and  stern  materialism.  The  bold  scepticism  and 
gross  impiety  of  such  schools  have,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, passed  away,  yet  much  of  the  spirit  that  animated 
them  is  manifested  in  our  own  times.  From  the 
elaborate  work  on  science  down  to  the  cheap  journal 
that  circulates  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  there 
is  not  a  little,  both  in  our  own  country  and  on  the 
Continent,  that  is  avowedly  opposed  to  the  idea  of 
Providence,  crying  out  upon  it  as  a  bugbear  in  men's 
path,  or  seeking  to  explode  the  doctrine  by  maintaining 
a  studied  silence  respecting  it,  when  it  might  most 
naturally  have  been  introduced. 

Such,  in  an  undisguised  form,  is  the  philosophical 
system  of  M.  Auguste  Comte,  who  has  been  styled 
the  Bacon  of  the  nineteenth  century.^  He  has  given 
to  the  world  a  large  work  of  profound  science,"  built 
entirely  on  palpable  facts,  which  are  said  to  have 
occurred  in  a  chain  of  necessary  development,  and  to 
need  no  do2:ma  of  a  Divine  Providence  to  account  for 
them.  It  interdicts  every  investigation  beyond  phe- 
nomena and  the  laws  of  phenomena,  as  without  the 
reach  of  the  human  mind.  And  not  only  so,  but 
every  philosophical  theory  admitting  the  intervention 
of  the  First  Cause,  is  denounced  as  bearing  a  drag 
that  obstructs  the  march  of  science  and  human  im- 
provement. This  is  very  broadly  laid  down  in  the 
law  of  mental  evolution  or   human   progress,  which 

*  Lewes  Biograpliical  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  iv.,  p.  255. 
'  Cours  de  Philosophie  Positive,  6  vols. 


lOB  naturalism;  or  the  denial 

he  applies  to  every  department  of  knowledge.  Ac- 
cording to  him,  the  intelligence  of  mankind  passes 
successively  through  three  distinct  stages:  the  super- 
natural, the  metaphysical,  and  the  positive.  The 
first  is  the  lowest  or  infant  state  of  human  society. 
The  last  is  the  period  of  progressive  development,  in 
which  the  mind  advances  onward  to  perfection.  It 
belongs  to  the  former,  to  attribute  all  the  operations 
of  nature  to  a  Divine  cause,  and  to  admit  the  inter- 
vention of  supernatural  power  to  account  for  every 
unusual  phenomena.  It  belongs  to  the  metaphysical 
stage,  to  ignore  all  such  supernatural  interpositions, 
to  bring  in  the  idea  of  abstract  forces,  and  to  personify 
them  under  the  one  agency  of  Nature.  While  it 
belongs  to  the  last,  the  age  of  advanced  science,  to 
exclude  all  search  into  causes,  and  to  apply  itself  to 
palpable  phenomena,  their  relations  and  laws,  so  as 
to  classify  and  generalize  them.  David,  in  a  distant 
age,  looked  upward,  and  said,  "  The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  sheweth  his 
handiwork.  0  Lord,  our  Lord,  how  excellent  is  thy 
name  in  all  the  earth !  who  hast  set  thy  glory  above 
the  heavens."  Newton  declared  that  "  every  true 
step  made  in  inductive  philosophy,  is  to  be  highly 
valued,  because  it  brings  us  nearer  to  the  First  Cause." 
"A  God  without  dominion,  providence,  and  final 
causes,"  said  the  author  of  the  "Principia,"  "is  nothing 
but  fate  and  nature."  And  again,  remarks  that 
greatest  name  in  science,  "it  no  doubt  belongs  to 
natural  philosophy,  to  inquire  concerning  God  from 
the   observation   of  phenomena."     But  according   to 


OF   THE   DIVINE   PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        107 

the  great  French  philosopher,  David  lived  in  an  in- 
fantile state  of  society,  when  men  sought  the  super 
natural  in  everything;  and  Newton  was  fettered  in 
his  glorious  career  of  discovery  by  the  theological 
chimera  of  a  Providence  and  a  God.  These  heavens 
and  this  earth,  the  bare  contemplation  of  which  has 
filled  with  holy  rapture  many  of  the  greatest  minds  of 
our  race,  and  the  investigation  into  the  phenomena 
of  which,  has  drawn  a  Newton  and  others  nearer  to 
God,  are,  in  the  view  of  Augustus  Comte,  and  his 
disciples,  but  a  magnificent  piece  of  mechanism,  in 
the  harmonious  movements  of  which,  nothing  higher 
is  to  be  recoo;nized  than  mechanical  laws.  It  is  said 
of  the  ancient  Epicureans  that  they  believed  in  the 
existence  of  the  gods,  but  neither  believed  them  to 
have  created  nor  to  govern  the  universe.  And  if  the 
brilliant  French  philosopher  admits  a  God  at  all,  he 
excludes  him  from  creation  and  dominion,  by  resolving 
this  goodly  universe,  both  in  its  formation  and  govern- 
ment, into  the  spontaneous  operation  of  purely  phy- 
sical principles.  The  system  which  is  impressed  by 
his  great  name,  if  not  absolutely  atheistical,  looks 
certainly  in  that  direction,  and  is,  to  say  the  least,  as 
massive  a  structure  of  naturalism  as  ever  scientific 
genius  exhibited  to  the  world. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  such  a  work  of 
profound  science,  characterized  as  it  is  by  high  intel- 
lectual powers,  would  be  greatly  prized  by  the  scien- 
tific men  of  our  own  country.  But  assuredly  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  the  author  of  so  useful  a  book  as 
"A  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy,"  should  be 


108  naturalism;  or  the  denial 

found  identifying  himself  witli  so  much  of  its  most 
objectionable  principles.  Speaking  of  Comte's  system 
as  the  key  to  decipher  past  History,  Mr.  Lewes  says.^ 
"  when  we  see  so  great  a  writer  as  Niebuhr  unable  to 
give  any  other  explanation  of  the  stability  and  pro- 
gress of  the  Roman  people,  than  that  of  destiny 
— unable  to  read  any  signs  but  those  of  the  'finger 
of  God' — it  is  high  time  to  bestir  ourselves  to  rid  the 
world  of  this  supernatural  method  of  explaining  facts." 
It  is  striking  and  gratifying  that  about  the  same  time 
that  this  little  work,  in  a  cheap  form,  is  endeavoring 
to  propagate  such  principles  among  us,  one  of  the 
most  graphic  historical  works^  that  was  ever  given  to 
the  world,  and  embracing  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
portions  of  the  world's  history,  should  follow  as  its 
guiding  star,  the  sentiment  "  God  in  history." — And, 
to  say  the  least,  it  is  surely  more  philosophical  to 
believe  that  the  Supreme  Being  operates  through  the 
medium  of  natural  laws,  than  that  these  laws  are 
independent  of  the  Law-makers, — that  the  world  with 
all  its  grand  and  beautiful  phenomena,  and  that  his- 
tory with  all  its  marvels,  bear  traces  of  the  directing 
finger  of  God,  than  that  all  should  be  wrapped  up  in 
an  iron  chain  of  necessary  development.  "  The  finger 
of  Providence  was  on  me,"  said  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, in  one  of  the  brief  notes  that  he  despatched  from 
the  field  of  Waterloo ;  and  this  sentiment,  expressed  at 
the  close  of  the  dreadful  fight  that  decided  the  fate  of 
nations,  and   under  a  solemnizing  impression   of  the 

'  Vol.  iv.,  p.  258.     "  D'Aubigne's  History  of  the  Reformation, 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL   GOVERNMENT.  109 

many  brave  that  had  fallen,  belongs,  we  are  told,  to 
the  lowest  stage  of  human  intelligence !  "I  had 
rather,"  said  Bacon — and  the  remark  is  as  applicable 
to  the  denial  of  Divine  Providence  as  to  the  denial  of 
the  Divine  Existence — "  I  had  rather  believe  all  the 
fables  in  the  Legend,  and  the  Talmud,  and  the  Al- 
coran, than  that  this  universal  frame  is  without  a 
mind."^ 

A  work  producing  considerable  excitement,  call- 
ing forth  a  storm  of  opposition  from  the  man  of 
science  and  the  divine,  and  which  excludes  God  as 
effectually  from  the  concerns  of  the  universe,  as  that 
to  which  we  have  just  adverted,  has,  but  a  few  years 
ago,  proceeded  from  the  press  of  our  own  country. 
We  allude  to  the  "  Vestiges  of  the  Natural  History  of 
Creation."  The  naturalism  of  this  anonymous  publi- 
cation, notwithstanding  the  term  Providence  is  occa- 
sionally on  the  author's  lips,  appears  without  disguise. 
The  theory  is  one  of  those  extreme  systems  of  devel- 

'  M.  Comte  is  not  inactive  in  carrying  out  his  principles.  He 
knows  that  man  will  worship.  But  he  is  determined,  as  much  as 
in  him  lies,  to  lead  France  and  the  other  European  nations  from  the 
worship  of  tke  supernatural  to  an  idolatry  of  science  or  a  systematic 
worship  of  humanity.  With  a  view  of  utterly  exploding  the  theo- 
logical element,  he  has  recently  constructed  a  "  Positive  Calendar  " 
of  Infidel  "Worship,  on  the  model  of  the  festivals  and  saints'  days  of 
the  Romish  Church.  It  is  nothing  more  than  a  public  periodic  com- 
memoration of  great  men ;  and  while  Moses  and  Paul  have  a  place 
in  it  with  such  heroes  as  Confucius  and  Mahomet  and  Voltaire,  the 
divine  man,  the  model  man,  Jesus  Christ,  is  ignored.  These  be  thy 
gods,  0  France,  and  this  worship  of  "  Positive  Philosophy  "  is  first 
to  regenerate  thee  and  then  the  world  !  ! — See  North  British  Review, 
May,  1851. 


no  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

opment,  according  to  which,  the  world  with  all  its 
varied  phenomena,  moves  on  in  its  stern  necessary 
course,  guided  only  by  physical  laws,  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  Divine  agency.  It  assumes  the  nebular  hypo- 
thesis— an  hypothesis  which,  resting  originally  on 
insufficient  data,  is  falling  more  and  more  into  dis- 
credit as  science  steadily  advances  —  and  from  the 
nebulous  matter  of  space,  which  "  must  have  been 
a  universal  fire-mist,"  it  evolves,  on  the  principle  of 
pure  physical  law,  the  whole  system  of  worlds.  This 
universal  fire-mist  being  granted,  we  have,  as  it  were, 
the  original  germ  of  the  material  universe.  The  germ 
may  have  been  created  by  God,  and  have  received 
from  him  its  first  impulse,  but  out  of  itself,  and  solely 
through  the  operation  of  physical  laws,  have  been 
gradually  unfolded  those  forms  of  magnificence  and 
beauty  which  we  see  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
The  theory  may  admit  of  a  Divine  interposition  in 
calling  the  original  constituents  of  the  universe  into 
existence,  but  it  dispenses  with  or  extrudes  all  Divine 
interposition  in  giving  to  matter  its  wondrous  and 
richly-varied  collocations.  It  may  allow  God  in  the 
beginning  to  utter  His  fiat,'  summon  matter  forth  in 
its  shapeless  form  from  the  void,  and  impress  on  it 
certain  laws,  but  it  allows  not  the  Creator  henceforth 
to  interfere  with  his  creation  or  even  to  touch  any  of 
its  springs  of  motion,  so  that,  after  the  first  creating 
act,  he  might  as  well  have  ceased  to  be.  The  uni- 
verse, according  to  this  theory  of  naturalism,  has 
moved  on  in  its  glorious  path  of  evolution,  from  the 
hour  of  the  creation  of  the  nebula?,  without  the  inter 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVEllNMENT.  Ill 

position  of  God  ;  his  existence'  and  agency  being 
deemed  necessary  to  give  it  beginning,  but  not  neces- 
sary to  fashion,  dispose,  continue,  and  control  it. 
To  the  questions,  whence  this  universal  fire-mist,  this 
nebulous  matter,  diffused  throughout  space,  and  the 
natural  laws  with  which  it  has  been  endowed,  you 
may  get  the  answer,  "from  God."  But  you  get  no 
such  answer  when  you  ask  who  fashioned  matter  into 
such  grand  and  beautiful  forms,  and  disposed  them  so 
orderly  and  beneficially.  The  Most  High  seems  now 
to  have  abdicated,  and  to  have  enthroned  the  physical 
laws,  and  left  them  to  mould  and  govern  the  worlds. 
The  Bible,  in  its  sublime  simplicity,  tells  us  that 
"  God  made  two  great  lights  ;  the  greater  light  to  rule 
the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night:  he 
made  the  stars  also."  But  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges " 
declares,  "the  masses  of  space  are  formed  by  law; 
law  makes  them  in  due  time  theatres  of  existence  for 
plants  and  animals."^  "It  is  impossible,"  he  says," 
"to  suppose  a  distinct  exertion  or  fiat  of  Almighty 
Power  for  the  formation  of  the  earth,  wrought  up  as 
it  is  in  a  complex  dynamical  connection,  first  with 
Venus  on  the  one  hand,  and  Mars  on  the  other,  and 
secondly  with  all  the  other  members  of  the  system." 
And  not  only  so,  but  he  endeavors  to  interpret  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  so  as  to  discountenance 
"  special  efforts  of  the  deity."  The  sublime  expression, 
"  Let  light  be,"  indicates  no  special  interposition  of  the 
great  Creator,  but  merely  a  process  of  law.     And  such 

»  Vestiges,  p.  372,  5tli  edition.  *  Ibid.,  p.  204. 


112  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

statements  as — God  made  the  firmament,  God  made 
the  beast  of  the  earth,  &c.,  are  said  "  to  occur  subor- 
dinately....not  necessarily  to  convey  a  different  idea  of 
the  mode  of  creation,  and  indeed  only  appear  as  alter- 
native phrases  in  the  usual  duplicative  style  of  the 
east."  ^     This  is  naturalism  without  a  cloak. 

We  dwell  not  here  on  the  strong  presumptive  proof 
which  advancing  science  is  bringing  against  the 
nebular  hypothesis.  The  fact  that  so  many  of  the 
supposed  nebulas  have  been  resolved  into  starry  sys- 
tems, makes  it  highly  probable  that  all  are  resolvable. 
Lord  Rosse's  powerful  telescope  has  revealed  suns  and 
systems  where  nothing  but  dim  nebulee  were  supposed 
to  exist.  And  could  another  instrument  of  consider- 
ably greater  magnifying  power  be  constructed,  the 
hypothesis,  already  so  much  damaged,  might  be  com- 
pletely destroyed.  "  As  thrown  out  by  Laplace," 
remarks  Professor  Whewell,^  "  it  was  a  mere  conjec- 
ture. It  is  a  mere  conjecture  still.  Hitherto  it  has 
lost  ground  in  the  progress  of  astronomical  researches." 
But  let  us  suppose  it  to  be  true,  "  that  the  primary 
condition  of  matter  was  that  of  a  diffused  mass,  in 
which  the  component  molecules  were  probably  kept 
apart  through  the  efficacy  of  heat ;  that  portions  of 
this  agglomerated  into  suns,  which  threw  off  planets ; 
that  these  planets  were  at  first  very  much  diffused, 
but  gradually  contracted  by  cooling  to  their  present 
dimensions:"^   still,  on  this  supposition,  we  demand 

'  Vestiges,  p.  167,  5th  edition. 

'  Indications  of  the  Creator,  p.  27,  2d  edition. 

*  Vestiges,  p.  43,  5th  edition. 


1F    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  113 

the  j»  <*seiice  and  agency  of  God.  The  orderly  and 
varied  dispositions  of  matter  bespeak  a  Divine  inter- 
position, as  well  as  the  origination  of  matter  itself. 
In  view  of  the  collocations  and  motions  of  the  mate- 
rial system,  we  no  less  naturally  infer  a  Divine  Provi- 
dence, than  in  thinking  of  the  existence  of  matter 
we  infer  the  agency  of  the  creating  God.  The  a  pos- 
teriori argument  has  as  firm  a  footing  amid  these  col- 
locations, as  it  has  on  the  existence  of  matter  and  its 
laws.  Yea,  more ;  it  is  in  these  collocations  that  we 
see  the  most  legible  evidences  of  design,  and  it  is  not 
so  much  from  the  bare  existence  of  matter,  as  from 
its  dispositions  and  motions  that  we  rise  up  to  the 
Great  Designer.  The  nebulous  mass  difiused  through- 
out space,  supposing  such  to  have  existed,  came  not 
there  without  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty  ;  and  suns  and 
planets  were  not  formed  out  of  that  mass  without  the 
intervention  of  Infinite  Wisdom.  The  Book  of  Crea- 
tion, beautifully  written  and  well  arranged,  points  up 
to  the  Divine  Hand  that  garnished  and  disposed  it, 
no  less  than  it  proclaims  the  Divine  Power  that  called 
from  nothingness  the  materials  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed. The  author  of  the  "  Vestiges  "  tells  us  that  law 
formed  the  masses  of  space  into  goodly  theatres  of 
existence  for  plants  and  animals.  But  what  are  na- 
tural laws  without  a  Divine  intelligence  working  in 
them  and  by  them  ?  Not  realities  but  merely  abstrac- 
tions. The  existence  of  law  not  more  truly  presup- 
poses the  Lawgiver,  than  does  the  harmonious  and 
uniform  operation  of  law  indicate  the  presence  and 
control  of  the  Governor.      It  is  quite  an  illusion  to 


114  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

speak  of  tlie  laws  of  nature  ,as  if  they  were  things 
distinct  from  the  natural  phenomena,  and  to  invest 
them,  like  independent  deities,  with  fashioning  and 
regulating  powers,  "It  is  a  perversion  of  language," 
says  Dr.  Paley,^  "  to  assign  any  law,  as  the  efficient 
operative  cause  of  anything.  A  law  presupposes  an 
agent ;  for  it  is  only  the  mode,  according  to  which  an 
agent  proceeds  :  it  implies  a  power,  for  it  is  the  order 
according  to  which  that  power  acts.  Without  this 
agent,  without  this  power,  which  are  both  distinct 
from  itself,  the  laiu  d(5es  nothing  ;  is  nothing.'' 
''  Opus,"  remarks  Lord  Bacon,  "  quod  operatur  Deus 
a  primordio  usque  ad  finem." 

But  this  theory  of  progressive  development  explains 
how  the  vforld  was  peopled,  as  well  as  how  it  was 
formed.  It  includes  within  its  sweep  both  the  ani- 
mate and  inanimate  phenomena  of  the  universe.  It 
would  not  only  evolve  from  a  universal  fire-mist,  and 
by  the  exclusive  operation  of  physical  law,  all  the 
forms  Avhich  matter  has  assumed,  but  it  would  trace 
the  whole  organized  system,  in  a  regularly  advancing 
series,  up  from  an  infusorial  point  to  the  noblest 
being,  man.  "  No  organism  is,  nor  ever  has  one  been 
created,"  is  the  language  of  a  chief  philosopher  of 
this  school,"  "  which  is  not  microscopic.  Whatever 
is  larger  has  not  been  created  but  developed.  Man 
lias  not  been  created  but  developed."  "  We  call  in 
question,"  says  the  author  of  the  "Vestiges,"^  "not 


'  NatmrAl Theology,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  9,  10.     (Kniglit's  edition.) 
*  Professor  Oken.      '  Vestiges,  p.  161,  5th  edition. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        115 

merely  the  simple  idea  of  the  unenlightened  mind, 
that  God  fashioned  all  in  the  manner  of  an  artificer 
seeking  by  special  means  to  produce  special  effects, 
but  even  the  doctrine  in  vogue  amongst  men  of  sci- 
ence, that  '  creative  fiats'  were  required  for  each  new 
class,  order,  family,  and  species  of  organic  beings,  as 
they  successively  took  their  places  upon  the  globe,  or 
as  the  globe  became  gradually  fitted  for  their  recep- 
tion." According  to  the  Bible,  "God  said,  Let  us 
make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness;  So  God 
created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God 
created  he  him."  But,  according  to  this  theory,  God 
created  only  microscopic  monads  or  embryotic  points, 
and  from  these,  by  a  process  of  natural  development 
extending  through  cycles  of  ages,  arose  all  the  ani- 
mated tribes.  Creatures  of  "the  simplest  and  most 
primitive  type  gave  birth  to  a  type  superior  to  it  in 
compositeness  of  organization  and  endowment  of 
faculties  ;  this  again  produced  the  next  higher,  and  so 
on  to  the  highest;  the  advance  being,  in  all  cases, 
small,  but  not  of  any  determinate  extent."^  Man  was 
not  then  the  special  workmanship  of  the  living  God. 
Moses  is  to  be  understood  as  speaking  of  ordinary 
law  when  he  says,  "  The  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the 
breath  of  life."  David's  devotion  is  to  be  set  down 
as  enthusiasm,  when,  addressing  God,  he  exclaimed, 
"Thou  madest  man  a  little  lower  than  the  angels." 
We  must  go  back  to  the  infusorial  point,  "  whose  seed 

'  Vestiges,  p.  232,  5th  edition. 


116  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

was  in  itself,"  for  the  germ  of  human  existence,  and 
then,  in  retracing  our  steps,  notice  how  throughout 
the  whole  marvellous  process  there  is  no  mixture  of  the 
supernatural.  The  Creator  is  thus  bidden  to  retire  to 
the  utmost  bound  of  creation.  No  room  is  left  for 
Him  to  interpose  and  create  new  species.  He  gave  the 
first  impulse  at  a  dateless  period  in  the  past,  and  all 
subsequent  formations  and  dispositions,  however  won- 
drous and  varied,  are  the  necessary  results  of  fixed 
laws.  This  is  th^  order  of  God's  universe !  Yea : 
"  the  system  ought  to  be  described  as  a  System  of 
Order  in  wliich  life  grows  out  of  dead  matter^  the  higher 
out  of  the  lower  animals^  and  man  out  of  brutes. ''''^ 

The  theory  is  no  less  opposed  to  the  well-ascer 
tained  facts  of  science  than  it  is  to  the  scriptural  re- 
cord. The  most  illustrious  names  in  the  scientific 
world  have  condemned  it.  Geology,  as  it  unfolds  leaf 
after  leaf  of  the  "  great  stone  book,"  gives  the  lie  to 
it.  The  maxim  is  indeed  true  :  Natura  non  operatur 
'per  saltum,  understanding  that  "  Nature  is  but  a  name 
for  an  effect,  whose  cause  is  God."^  But  it  is  a  wild 
fancy,  a  reckless  mode  of  philosophizing,  to  conclude 
that  since  there  are  no  gaps  in  nature,  there  have 
been  no  interpositions  of  the  Creator  from  the  period 
when  He  formed  the  first  and  smallest  organism. 
The  stars  in  their  harmonious  courses  have  been  called 
to  fight  against  God,  and  now  the  orderly  gradations 
of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  are  summoned 
to  give  evidence  against   his   agency  and  dominion. 

'  Whewell's  Indications,  p.  12,  2d  edition. 
'  Cowper. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT,        117 

But  the  earth  beneath  and  the  heavens  above  refuse  to 
be  perjured.  And,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  has  remarked, 
"these  two  doctrines,  the  all  but  universal  faith  of 
naturalists,  that  there  is  no  spontaneous  generation 
and  no  transmutation  of  the  species,  are  two  denials, 
in  fact,  of  nature's  sufficiency  for  the  origination  of 
our  races,  and  shut  us  up  unto  the  faith  of  nature's 
God."  Had  the  development  theory  been  founded  in 
truth,  it  is  obvious  that  the  earlier  fossils  would  have 
been  very  small  in  size  and  very  low  in  organization. 
But  such  is  not  the  case.  We  meet  with  giants  where 
we  should  have  found  dwarfs,  and  creatures  of  a  hig-h 
organization  instead  of  creatures  of  a  low  one.  In 
the  last,  and  one  of  the  ablest  replies  to  this  fanciful 
hypothesis,  Mr.  Hugh  Miller  shows  that  the  oldest 
ganoids  yet  known  are,  both  as  to  size  and  organization, 
in  direct  opposition  to  it.  "Up  to  a  certain  point 
in  the  geologic  scale  we  find  that  the  ganoids  are  not; 
and  when  they  at  length  make  their  appearance  upon 
the  stage,  they  enter  large  in  their  stature  and  high 
in  their  organization."^  The  Fossil  Flora  also  con- 
tradicts it.  At  the  base  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
where,  according  to  the  development  theory,  "  nothing 
higher  than  a  lichen  or  a  moss  could  have  been  ex- 
pected, the  ship-carpenter  might  have  hopefully  taken 
axe  in  hand  to  explore  the  woods  for  some  such  stately 
pine  as  the  one  described  by  Milton."^  The  stubborn 
facts  of  science  thus  conflict  with  this  baseless  theory, 
a  theory  adopted  before  ever  geology  had  a  place 
among  the  inductive  sciences,  and  which  no  eminent 
'  Footprints,  p.  105.  '  Ibid.  p.  120. 


118  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

geologist  is  found  to  advocate.  We  are  warranted,  then, 
with  the  author  of  the  "  Footprints,"  to  say  :  "  Had 
an  intelligent  being,  ignorant  of  what  was  going  on 
upon,  earth  during  the  week  of  creation,  visited  Eden 
on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day,  he  would  have  found 
in  it  many  of  the  inferior  animals,  but  no  trace  of 
man.  Had  he  returned  again  in  the  evening,  he 
would  have  seen,  installed  in  the  office  of  keepers  of 
the  garden,  and  ruling  with  no  tyrant  sway  as  the 
humble  monarchs  of  its  brute  inhabitants,  tw^  mature 
human  creatures,  perfect  in  their  organization,  and 
arrived  at  the  full  stature  of  their  race.  The  entire 
evidence  regarding  them,  in  the  absence  of  all  such 
information  as  that  imparted  to  Adam  by  Milton's 
angel,  would  amount  simply  to  this,  that  in  the  morn- 
ing man  was  fiot^  and  that  in  the  evening  he  ^vas. 
There,  of  course,  could  not  exist,  in  the  circumstances, 
a  single  appearance  to  sanction  the  belief  that  the 
two  human  creatures  whom  he  saw  walking,  together 
among  the  trees  at  sunset,  had  been  '  developed  from 
infusorial  points,'  not  created  mature.  The  evidence 
would,  on  the  contrary,  lie  all  the  other  way."^  Such 
is  at  once  the  evidence  of  Scripture  and  geology. 
The  "  vestiges  of  the  natural  history  of  the  creation" 
become  the  "  footprints  of  the  Creator,"  and  vain  be- 
comes the  attempt  to  explain  the  world's  genealogies 
so  as  to  banish  from  it  the  Omnipotent  Father  and 
Sovereign  Lord. 

In  the  domain  of  physical  research,  the  "  Cosmos" 
of  Humboldt,  a  work  of  considerable  value  and  popu- 

'  Footprints,  p.  104. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    i'ilOVlDENTlAL    GOVERNMENT.         119 

laritj,  bears  on  it  the  stamp  of  naturalism.  Unlike 
the  book  on  -which  we  have  been  animadverting,  it 
propounds  no  theory  to  account  for  the  formation 
and  peopling  of  the  world,  though  the  author  favors 
the  nebular  hypothesis,  but  gives,  what  it  professes 
to  do,  a  physical  description  of  the  universe.  It  is 
more  guilty  by  its  omissions  than  by  its  assertions, 
though  in  some  of  these  the  naturalism  is  obvious 
enough.  It  is  the  most  striking  illustration,  with 
which  we  are  acquainted,  of  a  work  setting  aside  the 
doctrine  of  Divine  Providence  by  maintaining  a  studied 
silence  respecting  it,  when  the  author,  if  a  believer 
in  the  doctrine,  would  have  been  naturally  led  by  his 
subject  to  advert  to  it.  It  is  just  as  if  one  were  to 
give  a  glowing  description  of  the  pictures  of  Raphael 
without  alluding  to  the  genius  of  the  artist ;  just  as 
if  Addison  and  Macaulay,  in  their  dissertations  on  the 
grand  poem  of  "  Paradise  Lost,"  had  never  mentioned 
Milton,  "that  mighty  orb  of  song,"  or,  as  has  been  re- 
marked,^ just  as  if  a  critic  were  to  give  a  correct  and 
eloquent  account  of  the  contents  of  "  Cosmos"  itself, 
without  referring  to  its  illustrious  author,  and  the 
mental  manifestation  which  he  has  made  of  himself 
in  its  pages.  Baron  Humbolt,  in  this  work,  makes 
no  reference  to  a  living  omnipresent  God.  He  sinks 
the  spiritual  in  the  material.  He  can,  with  much 
picturesque  animation  of  style,  exhibit  the  phenomenal 
harmony  of  the  heavens,  and  describe  his  path  from 
the  remotest  nebula,   to  the   minutest  organism,  and 

'  Dr.  Harris'  Man  Primeval,  p.  313. 


120  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

ignore  Him  who  is  the  source  of  all  that  life  and 
order.  We  perused  a  considerable  portion  of  this 
interesting  book  while  wandering  on  a  lovely  day  of 
June  over  a  beautiful  tract  of  country,  and  were  struck 
with  the  contrast  between  its  repeated  references  to 
the  active  forces  of  nature  and  no  reference  to  nature's 
God,  and  the  glorious  volume  of  creation  that  lay  open 
before  us,  every  page  and  line  of  which  were  radiant 
with  the  Creator's  glory,  and  spoke  of  His  power, 
wisdom,  and  goodness.  We  lifted  the  eye  from  the 
page  of  the  philosophic  traveller  to  the  grand  scenery 
above  and  around  us,  and  involuntarily  asked,  is  there, 
then,  amid  this  magnificent  spectacle  of  earth  and 
sky  no  other  power  pervading  and  animating  the 
whole  but  physical  forces  ?  We  wondered  to  what 
specific  cause  it  was  to  be  attributed,  that  so  keen 
and  enthusiastic  an  observer  of  natural  phenomena 
could,  "  in  the  late  evening  of  an  active  life,"  present 
a  sketch  of  a  Physical  Description  of  the  Universe, 
"  whose  undefined  imasre  had  floated  before  his  mind 

o 

for  almost  half  a  century,"  in  which  no  reference  is 
made  to  the  Eternal  One,  but  in  the  outset  of  which, 
as  if  to  prevent  disappointment,  he  uses  such  language 
as  the  following :  "In  reflecting  upon  physical  phe 
nomena  and  events,  and  tracing  their  causes  by  the 
process  of  reason,  we  become  more  and  more  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  ancient  doctrine,  that  the 
forces  inherent  in  matter,  and  those  v/hich  govern 
the  moral  world,  exercise  their  action  under  the  con- 
trol of  jDrimordial  necessity,  and  in  accordance  with 
movements    occurring    periodically    after    longer    or 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        121 

shorter  intervals."'  The  illustrious  German,  after 
having  travelled  over  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
earth's  surface,  and  made  himself  acquainted  with  all 
that  is  at  present  known  of  the  physical  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  thus  acknowledges,  in  the  midst  of 
his  fourscore  years,  no  higher  agency  than  inherent 
material  forces,  acting  under  the  government  of  a  pri- 
mordial necessity.  Divine  Providence  is  thus  inter- 
dicted, and  this  goodly  universe  moves  onward,  un- 
folding its  forms  of  life  and  grandeur,  without  the 
hand  of  Him  that  made  it.  This  may  consist  with 
Hegelianism,  or  with  some  other  form  of  the  trans- 
cendental philosophy,  but  it  does  not  consist  with  the 
deeper  philosophy  of  man's  inward  nature.  It  might 
do  if  we  had  heads  and  no  hearts.  The  intellect  may 
rest  in  it  for  awhile,  but  the  soul  with  its  capacities 
and  cravings  cannot  repose  there  for  a  moment.  Our 
very  heart-strings  must  be  torn  out,  the  emotional 
part  of  our  nature  must  be  over-borne,  and  all  our 
upward  aspirations  repressed,  before  we  can  be  satis- 
fied with  this  thing  of  fate,  this  primordial  necessity, 
in  the  room  of  the  living  and  ever-ruling  God.  Even 
in  an  eesthetic  view  this  method  of  philosophizing 
stands  condemned.  Robert  Hall  has  truly  said : 
"  The  exclusion  of  a  Supreme  Being  and  of  a  superin- 
tending Providence,  tends  directly  to  the  destruction 
of  moral  taste.  It  robs  the  universe  of  all  finished  and 
consummate  excellence,  even  in  idea." 

Combe's  "  Constitution  of  Man,"  a  work  of  vastly 
wider  circulation,  and  more  adapted  to  the  masses  of 

'   Cosmos,  vol.  i.,  p.  30. 


122  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

the  people,  than  any  to  which  we  have  referred,  is, 
notwithstanding  much  that  is  valuable  in  the  book, 
notorious  for  its  naturalism.  Mr.  Combe  and  his 
school  are  not  satisfied  with  discarding  ignorant  and 
superstitious  notions  about  Providence.  But  their 
philosophy  explodes  the  very  idea  of  a  Providence  who 
controls  and  orders  all  things,  and  without  whose 
permission  not  even  a  sparrow  can  fall  to  the  ground. 
We  meet,  in  such  writers,  with  much  that  is  worthy 
of  attention  respecting  the  influence  of  natural  laws 
both  on  physical  health  and  mental  and  moral  train- 
ing, and  the  evil  consequences  of  disregarding  or  vio- 
lating these  laws.  And  we  are  quite  willing  to  admit 
with  the  author  of  the  "  Vestiges,"  that  to  Mr.  Combe's 
Essay,  among  other  publications,  "  may  be  ascribed 
no  small  share  of  that  public  movement  towards  im- 
proved sanitory  regulations  which  is  one  of  the  most 
cheering  features  of  our  age.''^  But  the  good  in  this 
respect  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  evil  of 
erecting  the  natural  laws  into  a  sort  of  independent 
control,  and  holding  out  this  principle  as  the  true  key 
to  the  government  of  the  world.'  It  is  a  good  service 
to  rescue  the  natural  laws  from  the  hands  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  and  to  set  forth  their  operations  in 
a  clear  light.  Mr.  ^  Combe  has,  in  some  measure, 
done  this.  But  evil  is  done  when  these  laws  are 
taken,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  hand  of  the  superintending 
Lawgiver,  when  either  a  studied  silence  about  God 
•5S  working  in  and  by  them  is  preserved,  or  intimations 

'  Vestiges,  p.  397,  5th  edition. 

^  Constitution  of  Man,  p.  6,  People's  edition,  (Gtb.) 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        123 

given  tliat  they  are  all  in  all,  and  that  God  does  not 
interfere  with  their  operations.  And  Mr.  Combe  and 
his  school  have  done  this. 

It  is  the  extreme  of  superstition  or  fanaticism,  to 
repose  implicit  faith  in  Divine  Providence  while  neg- 
lecting or  going  counter  to  the  clearly-defined  laws  of 
the  human  constitution,  or  those  which  regulate  the 
physical  and  moral  worlds.  The  type  of  such  fanati- 
cism is  to  be  seen  in  the  man  who  expects,  as  it  were, 
bread  to  drop  from  the  clouds  into  his  mouth,  or  treas- 
ures to  fall  into  his  pockets  from  the  same  source,  while 
doggedly  refusing  to  work.  But  it  is  rushing  to  a 
godless  extreme,  the  extreme  of  naturalism,  to  rest  in 
mere  secondary  agencies  without  rising  upward  to 
Him  who  touches  all  the  springs  of  action,  or  to  ig 
nore  his  presence  in  and  superintendence  over  the 
world.  It  is  confessedly  mysterious  how  human  in- 
strumentality and  Divine  agency  blend  in  bringing 
about  events.  But  the  mystery  of  things  is  not  a 
whit  lessened  in  cutting  the  link  that  connects  the 
two  together,  in  virtually  saying,  let  us  loose  our  hold 
of  the  heavens  above,  and  attach  ourselves  exclusively 
to  the  earth  and  the  things  therein.  Is  the  world's 
history,  or  is  individual  history,  less  mysterious,  by 
'shutting  out  from  the  sphere  of  human  things  the 
Divine  Providence,  and  leaving  room  for  nothing  but 
the  operation  of  natural  laws  ?  Or  rather  is  not  all 
history,  by  such  an  exclusion,  made  much  more 
mysterious  than  ever?  In  the  one  case,  we  have  the 
human  agency  moving  freely  under  the  moral  control 
of  the  Divine,  we  have  in  full  play  the  elements  of 


124  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

human  action  and  piety,  and  yet  mysterious  relations. 
In  the  other  case,  we  have  only  the  human  agent  and 
the  physical  and  moral  laws,  we  have  excluded  the 
hand  of  God  and  taken  away  the  elements  of  piety, 
and  still  the  relations  are  mysterious.  The  choice 
then  lies  between  a  mysterious  world  in  which  God 
is  ever  present  and  ever  felt,  and  a  mysterious  world 
that  moves  onward  in  its  glorious  evolutions  without 
his  continued  agency.  He  is  the  better  philosopher 
and  the  happier  man  who  prefers  the  former,  and  holds 
a  key  to  things  inscrutable  which  can  never  be  solved 
by  the  man  who  chooses  the  latter. 

Mr.  Combe  sets  up  for  a  reformer,  the  advocate  of 
a  philosophy  which  would  turn  the  pulpits  of  our 
churches  and  the  chairs  of  our  schools  upside  down.^ 
Spiritual  religion  must  be  supplanted  "  by  teaching 
mankind  the  philosophy  of  their  own  nature  and  of 
the  world  in  which  they  live."  Human  depravity  is 
a  doctrine  which  he  cannot  away  with,  and  it  is  set 
down  to  "an  age  when  there  was  no  sound  philosophy, 
and  almost  no  knowledge  of  physical  science."*  That 
Christianity  is  "a  system  of  spiritual  influences,  of 
Internal  operations  on  the  soul,"  is  the  representation 
"  of  men  who  knew  extremely  little  of  the  science  of 
either  external  nature  or  the  human  mind."^  Prayer 
has  no  power  with  God,  but  is  merely  reflex  in  its 
influence,  affecting  only  the  mind  of  the  petitioner. "• 
And  death  is  not,^  as  Moses  and  Paul  have  written, 

•  Constitution  of  Man,  pp.  99,  100.         '  Ibid.,  p.  4.         ="  Ibid.,  p.  92. 
Ibid.,  p.  95.  '  Ibid.,  p.  58. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        125 

and  Milton  sung,  the  penal  effect  of  man's  first  dis- 
obedience. Hence  the  necessity,  as  he  asserts,  of  the 
religious  instructors  of  mankind  being  taught  over 
again,  and  of  "  a  new  direction  "  being  given  to  their 
pursuits.  He  means  modestly  to  insinuate,  that 
were  it  possible  to  summon  such  men  as  Butler  and 
Edwards,  Howe  and  Charnock,  Hall  and  Chalmers, 
"  men  who  knew  extremely  little  of  the  science  of 
either  external  nature  or  the  human  mind,"  back 
again  to  this  world,  they  would  have  to  learn,  in  his 
own  school,  the  philosophy  of  human  nature  and 
material  things,  in  order  to  prove,  in  this  age,  effective 
instructors  of  mankind!  Not  to  dwell,  however,  on 
the  inconsistency  of  such  statements  with  facts,  we 
readily  grant  that  there  is  much  in  them  consistent 
with  naturalism  or  the  denial  of  Divine  Providence. 
It  is  with  such  a  denial  that  we  have  now  to  do.  If, 
as  Mr.  Combe  asserts,^  "  supernatural  agency  has 
long  since  ceased  to  interfere  with  human  affairs," 
then  it  were  time  that  spiritual  Christianity  should 
give  place  to  a  philosophy  of  nature,  and  that  the 
worshippers  of  God  were  asking  what  profit  should 
we  have  if  we  pray  to  Him  ?~  But  if,  as  seems  to  be 
admitted,  such  an  agency  once  interposed  in  the  con- 
cerns of  the  world,  why  may  not  that  agency  be 
there   still,  operating   through   the  medium   of  those 


'  Constitution  of  Man,  p.  99. 

'  Cicero,  speaking  of  the  philosophers  of  this  school — ^not  the 
"magni  atque  nobiles," — asks:  "quorum  si  vera  sententia  est,  quae 
potest  esse  pietas  ?  qua)  sanctitis  ?  quae  religio  ?" — De  Nat.  Deoruni^ 
lib.  i. 


126  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

natural  laws  which  the  school  of  Combe  T^'oiilcl  exalt 
into  a  sort  of  independent  dominion  ? 

There  is  a  double  illusion  into  which  writers  of 
this  class  fall  when  speaking  of  natural  phenomena. 
In  the  first  place  they  represent  the  laws  of  nature, 
not,  as  they  really  are,  modes  of  the  Divine  procedure, 
but  as  if  they  were  real  and  independent  existences. 
And  then  they  suppose  that  because  things  happen 
acdording  to  fixed  laws,  the  Divine  agency  cannot  be 
in  them.  This,  viewed  merely  as  a  philosophy,  not 
to  speak  of  its  utter  repugnance  to  Scripture,  is  ex- 
tremely superficial.  Men,  by  knowing,  and  adapting 
themselves  to,  fixed  laws,  can  often  work  out  their 
own  will.  But  this  does  not  warrant  the  conclusion 
that  the  Divine  Lawgiver  cannot  or  does  not,  in  such 
cases,  make  them  subservient  to  the  accomplishment 
of  his  higher  will.  An  army,  at  the  will  of  a  monarch, 
bent  on  enlarged  dominion,  is  marched  into  a  foreign 
state ;  or  a  voyage  of  discovery  is  made  for  mere  com- 
mercial ends.  The  designs  of  men  in  both  instances 
are  served.  But  the  accomplishment  of  a  much 
higher  design,  to  which  these  inferior  ones  are  ren- 
dered tributary,  follows.  The  gospel  of  peace  enters 
into  the  respective  territories,  civilization  comes  in 
its  train,  and  by  the  truth  multitudes  are  made  free. 
God's  will  was  thus  paramount ;  and,  under  his  moral 
control,  the  human  will,  acting  by  the  fixed  laws, 
was  made  the  pliant  minister  of  the  Divine.  Take 
one  of  Combe's  own  examples.  In  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second,  London  was,  in  a  great  measure, 
depopulated   by  the  plague.      "  Most  people  of  thai 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  127 

age,"  says  lie/  "  attributed  the  scourge  to  the  inscru- 
table decrees  of  Providence,  and  some  to  the  magni- 
tude of  the  nation's  moral  iniquities."  But,  according 
to  his  views,  "there  was  nothing  inscrutable  in  its 
causes  or  objects. — These  appear  to  have  had  no 
direct  reference  to  the  moral  condition  of  the  people  ;" 
and  the  calamity  "must  have  arisen  from  infringe- 
ment of  the  organic  laws,  and  have  been  intended  to 
enforce  stricter  obedience  to  them  in  future."*  Now, 
Ave  ask,  can  disease  or  suffering  not  be  an  infringement 
of  organic  laws,  and  also  a  dispensation  of  Providence  ? 
Mr.  Combe  assumes  that  it  cannot ;  and  because  an 
individual  or  a  community,  neglectful  of  sanitary 
conditions,  falls  a  victim  to  plague,  we  are  to  believe 
that  the  natural  violation  leaves  no  room  for  the 
Divine  operation.  This,  however,  is  nothing  less  than 
an  assumption,  an  assumption  too,  which  fails  to 
account  for  much  of  the  afflictive  both  in  the  history 
of  individuals  and  communities.  The  human  or  sec- 
ondary agencies  do  not  exclude  the  Divine  or  first 
agency,  the  natural  laws  by  no  means  supersede  the 
presence  and  interposition  of  the  Lawgiver.  Mr. 
Morell,  speaking  of  these  secondary  agencies,  justly 
remarks :  "  They  are  all  under  the  moral  control  of 
Deity  from  first  to  last,  so  that  the  penalty,  which 
seems  at  first  to  be  simply  the  result  of  breaking  a 
natural  law,  is  really  an  effect  of  that  providential 
power  which  governs  the  world."  And  what  he  says 
of  the  world's  history,  may  be  said  of  the  history  of 
many  a  community  and  individual :     "To  the   man 

'   Combe's  Coustituiion  of  Man,  p.  3G. 


128  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

who  looks  unbelievingly  upon  Divine  Providence,  the 
world's  history  is  a  problem  that  can  never  be  solved."^ 
Combe's  view  of  prayer, — bolstered-up  though  it  be 
by  such  names  as  Lord  Kames,  Dr.  Hugh  Blair,  and 
Professor  Leechman,^  men  of  no  high  authority,  verily, 
in  such  matters, — stands  condemned  also  as  most  un- 
natural, not  to  say  most  unscriptural.  It  is,  indeed, 
quite  of  a  piece  with  his  philosophy,  but  it  consists 
not  with  the  deeper  philosophy  of  the  heart  and  the 
Bible.  Men  have  never  prayed  under  the  persuasion 
that  the  sole  efficacy  of  prayer  is  reflex,  that  it  has  an 
influence  only  upon  the  mind  of  the  worshipper.  The 
wisest  and  best  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  the  un- 
sophisticated children  of  the  desert,  as  well  as  the 
most  enlightened  and  devout  Christians,  have  resorted 
to  prayer  under  the  conviction  that  it  is  effectual  to 
secure  blessings  directly  from  above.  The  reflex  in- 
fluence of  prayer  is  valuable,  but  the  value  is  realized 
just  in  proportion  as  the  heart  goes  out  after  the  direct 
influence.  A  rational  theory  it  truly  is,  which  would 
thus  make  the  value  of  men's  devotions  to  arise  from 
men's  illusions !  The  reflex  influence  supposes  the 
direct  influence,  and  for  men  to  enjoy  the  former 
without  faith  in  the  latter,  resembles,  as  Isaac  Taylor 
remarks,^  "  the  supposition  that  we  might  continue 
to  enjoy  the  accommodation  of  moonlight,  even  if  the 
sun  were  blotted  from  the  planetary  system."  As  to 
the  stale  objection,  which  is  ever  and  anon  brought 

*  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  571. 
'  Combe's  Constitution  of  Man,  pp.  95,  96. 
°  Spiritual  Christianity,  p.  51. 


OF   THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  129 

forth/  that  the  direct  influence  of  prayer  supposes 
that  we  can  alter  the  Divine  determinations,  it  is 
sufficient  to  reply,  that  it  is  according  to  these  deter- 
minations that  men  must  ask  in  order  to  receive,  and 
knock  in  order  to  the  door  being  opened.  God  dis- 
closes unto  us  the  treasures  of  his  grace,  and  says, 
"  I  will  yet  for  these  be  inquired  of." 

What  is  insidiously  taught  by  such  a  writer  aa 
Combe,  has  been  advocated  more  boldly,  and  with 
less  fear  of  giving  offence,  by  the  Owen  School. 
Rationalism  is  here  defined  to  be  the  science  of  ma- 
terial circumstances.  And  the  philosophy  of  Owen- 
ism  ignores  everything  else.  It  denounces  other 
systems  for  having  spiritualized  man,  and  it  professes 
to  look  upon  him,  to  all  practical  purposes,  as  a  ma- 
terial being.  Humanity,  in  its  estimation,  contains 
within  itself  the  germs  of  indefinite  moral  improve- 
ment, and  needs  only  to  be  brought  under  the  genial 
influences  of  earth  to  ripen  into  perfection.  Super- 
natural aid  is  interdicted  at  the  threshold,  lest  it 
should  beget  an  indifference  to  self-exertion,  and 
foster  a  habit  of  dependence.  The  first  and  last 
lesson  given  to  its  disciples  is,  that  men's  opinions 
and  actions  result  exclusively  from  their  original  sus- 
ceptibilities, and  the  influences  of  the  world  around 

'■  Mr.  R.  W.  Maekay,  who,  after  the  manner  of  Combe,  confines 
"  the  circle  of  our  real  knowledge  to  phenomenal  succession  and  its 
laws,"  with  all  the  coolness  of  the  sensational  school,  serves  up  this 
oft-refuted  objection.  He  falsely  assumes  that  prayer  presupposes 
changeableness  in  God,  and  then  settles  the  matter  by  telling  us  that 
the  Creator  is  not  "  to  be  diverted  from  his  purposes  by  entreaty.'' 
^The  Progress  of  the  Inldlect.  vol.  i..  pp.  25,  109. 

9 


130  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

them,  over  which  they  have  no  control.  Hence  its 
oft-repeated  injunction,  Study  yourself  and  mind 
external  circumstances.  This  is  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  its  commandments.  It  admits  the  existence 
of  error  and  vice  in  humanity,  for  these  are  too  pal- 
pable to  be  denied,  but  it  charitably  calls  them  mis- 
fortunes, and,  as  a  remedy  for  all  moral  ills,  insists 
on  a  rational  education.  The  favorite  analogy  of 
this  system  is  derived  from  the  influence  which  the 
Bun  exerts  upon  the  earth.  This  is  at  once  the  grand 
image  in  its  poetry,  and  the  grand  illustration  of  its 
philosophy.  Human  nature  is  compared  to  the  earth, 
and  external  influences  to  the  sun  which  vivifies  and 
adorns  it.  Rationalism  says,  bring  a  man  of  good 
susceptibilities  into  a  favorable  position  as  regards 
external  circumstances,  and  hence  results  a  good 
character.  This  is  the  system,  ushered  forth  with 
big  pretensions,  and  propounded  in  innumerable 
little  books  and  pamphlets,  which  is  "to  renovate 
the  social  state,  recast  and  elevate  humanity!" 

The  crude  elements  of  the  system  have  been  found 
floating  on  the  surface  of  society  in  every  age.  Its 
modern  form  may  be  said  to  have  been  cut  out  by 
Rousseau  and  French  philosophy,  and  to  have  assumed 
a  still  more  palpable  shape  in  the  hands  of  Owen 
and  his  followers.  It  is  gross  naturalism,  naked  and 
not  ashanoed,  and  as  such,  though  now  fast  in  the  wane, 
it  has  boen  greeted  by  masses  of  the  people  who  were 
dispos-d  to  throw  off"  every  species  of  religion  as  an 
intolerable  yoke.  Such  writers  as  the  author  of  the 
"  Test  jo;es,"  do  not  more  effectually  exclude  Providence 


OF    THE   DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  131 

from  tlie  government  of  the  spheres,  and  from  the 
whole  domain  of  natural  history,  than  do  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  "new  moral  world"  shut  out  the  idea 
of  supernatural  interference  in  educating  man.  Ra- 
tionalism in  this  form,  and  what  is  called  communism, 
are  often  associated,  though  they  are  by  no  means 
to  be  identified  or  confounded.  Its  politics  rise  out 
of  its  philosophy.  The  great  lesson  of  its  philosophy 
is,  external  circumstances  are  the  agents  of  fate,  look 
well  to  them.  Its  politics  may  be  summed  up  in 
ascribing  demoralization  and  crime  to  the  factitious 
arrangements  of  society.  It  cries  out,  alter  these, 
place  society  in  a  favorable  position,  educate  man 
aright,  and  then  will  be  realized  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

Viewed  merely  as  a  system  of  philosophy,  it  is  the 
shallowest  that  rationalism  ever  offered  to  the  world. 
No  one  denies  the  vast  influence  of  external  circum- 
stances upon  the  human  character,  and  the  import- 
ance of  attending  to  them.  It  will  also  be  admitted 
that  improved  systems  of  education,  and  altered  ar- 
rangements in  civil  society,  would  tend  greatly  to 
lessen  crime,  and  ameliorate  the  condition  of  man. 
But  to  rest  the  world's  regeneration  on  these  alone, 
exposes  the  system  to  the  charge  of  being  one-sided 
and  empirical,  as  unphilosophical  as  it  is  ungodly. 
It  takes  up  one  idea,  an  important  and  a  true  one, 
but,  to  the  neglect  of  other  ideas  no  less  true  and 
important,  this  is  exalted,  carried  everywhere  forth, 
and  all  men  and  things  are  called  to  fall  down  and 
worship   it.      Material   circumstances   are   something, 


132  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

but  the  school  of  Owen  makes  them  everytliing. 
The  human  will  is  no  doubt  influenced  by  them,  but 
our  rationalists  maintain,  in  opposition  to  conscious- 
ness, that  it  is  controlled  by  them.  Man  is  made  a 
passive  creature.  This  is  plainly  implied  in  the  fond 
analogy  of  the  sun  acting  upon  the  earth.  Emerson 
has  said,^  "  man  is  here,  not  to  work,  but  to  be  worked 
upon."  And  the  men  of  this  school  tell  us  that  our 
characters  are  the  necessary  result  of  our  organization 
at  birth,  and  subsequent  external  influences  over 
which  we  have  no  control.  "  The  germs  of  intelli- 
gence and  virtue  are  expanded  or  blasted  by  them," 
and  thus  the  whole  human  character  is  formed.  It 
is  not  so.  Our  subjective  constitution  is  not  such 
an  inert,  helpless  thing.  We  are  conscious  of  pos- 
sessing a  faculty  which  gives  us  control  over  external 
circumstances ;  so  that,  taking  this  into  account, 
it  is  true  that  character  is  the  result  of  our  sub- 
jective nature,  and  of  the  objective  influences 
acting  upon  it.  But  in  this  system  of  naturalism, 
the  great  facts  of  man's  moral  nature  are  ignored. 
One  portion  of  the  field  of  phenomena  is  dwelt  upon 
as  if  it  were  the  whole,  and  the  other  portion, 
which  to  a  reflective  mind  is  no  less  obvious,  is  over- 
looked. The  eye  is  turned  outward  and  lost  in 
material  things.  It  does  not  direct  its  glance  down 
into  the  depths  of  human  consciousness,  and  fails  to 
perceive  the  more  wondrous  things  of  the  spirit.  A 
sense  of  responsibility,  and  moral  sentiment,  are 
great  truths  in  the  natural  history  of  man.  They 
'  Representative  Men,  p.  92,  Bohn's  edition. 


OF    THE    DiTINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        133 

are  phenomena  just  as  palpable  to  the  eye  that  looks 
inward,  as  any  of  the  material  circumstances  are  to 
the  eye  that  looks  outward.  But  the  Owen  School 
either  loses  sight  of  these  phenomena  in  human 
nature,  or  would  assign  them  to  a  blind  necessity,  a 
source  from  which  the  unsophisticated  mind  refuses 
to  receive  them.  Then  there  is  the  stubborn,  though 
mysterious  fact  of  human  depravity,  which  it  either 
winks  at,  or  entirely  overlooks,  and  for  counteracting 
which  it  accordingly  makes  no  provision.  The  wonder 
is  how  the  abettors  of  such  a  system  can  read  history, 
or  look  upon  the  world  around  them,  without  per- 
ceiving, on  the  one  hand,  how  individuals  and  com- 
munities, placed  amid  the  most  favorable  external 
circumstances,  have  continued  corrupt  and  corrupters ; 
and  how,  on  the  other  hand,  persons  more  unfavor- 
ably situated  have,  notwitstanding,  become  exem- 
plars of  virtue.  A  theory  that  ascribes  so  much  to 
the  mere  outward  relations,  and  leaves  no  room  for 
an  influence  counteractive  of  bad  ones  or  efficacious 
to  good  ones,  is  condemned  by  experience  as  well  as  by 
religion.  But  perhaps  its  advocates  would  remove  it 
from  such  a  tribunal,  by  affirming  that  no  community 
has  ever  yet  been  placed  in  such  a  paradisiacal  state 
as  rationalism  would  place  it.  In  such  a  case,  it 
must  bear  the  double  stigma  of  being  godless  and 
Utopian. 

Hitherto  we  have  viewed  naturalism  as  broadly 
manifested  in  some  works  on  physical  and  moral 
science,  and  now  we  have  to  notice  its  appearance  in 
the  department  of  Bible  theology.     Germany,  in  this 


134  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

respect,  though  not  exclusively  its  seat,  has  attained 
a  bad  pre-eminence.  Thousands  of  men,  professing 
to  be  Christ's  ministers  and  expounders  of  his  word, 
have,  during  the  last  half  century  or  more,  propounded 
from  the  halls  and  pulpits  of  Germany  a  creed  which 
no  more  admits  of  supernatural  influence  than  any  of 
the  philosophical  systems  to  which  we  have  adverted. 
In  their  teaching,  God  is  as  effectually  excluded  from 
the  province  of  the  Bible,  as  in  the  "  Yestiges"  and 
similar  works  He  is  excluded  from  the  solar  system. 
The  brilliant  and  beneficent  miracles  which  ushered 
in  the  Gospel  dispensation,  are  exploded,  or  explained 
away  on  purely  natural  principles.  And  what  is  prop- 
erly meant  by  Divine  influence  is  denied  a  place 
either  in  the  mode  of  inspiring  the  sacred  writers,  or 
in  the  mode  of  enlightening  and  renewing  the  minds 
of  the  readers.  Spinoza,  whose  philosophy  has 
exerted  such  a  mighty  influence  •  on  the  thinking  of 
Germany,  had  said,  "  all  that  is  recorded  in  the  books 
of  revelation,  took  place  in  conformity  with  the  estab- 
lished laws  of  the  universe."  On  this  principle, 
interpretation  after  interpretation  has  been  given, 
until  the  sacred  record  has  been  swept  as  clear  of  its 
mighty  signs  and  wonders,  as  some  would  sweep  the 
starry  firmament  of  the  evidences  of  an  ever-present 
and  all-controlling  God.  In  Germany,  speculative 
philosophy  and  theological  doctrine  are  more  closely 
linked  together  than  in  any  other  country  in  Europe. 
The  pervading  principle  of  its  speculative  philosophy, 
that  God  never  intervenes  sj^ecially,  but  that  all  things 
move   on  in   a  chain   of  necessary  development,  has 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.         135 

been  carried  into  the  region  of  its  theology.  Hence 
the  axiom  laid  down  at  the  threshold,  "  miracles  are 
an  impossibility."  The  very  first  principle  which 
Strauss  brings  to  the  study  of  the  evangelists  is,  that 
when  the  events  narrated  are  incompatible  with  known 
and  universal  laws,  it  must  be  maintained  that  they  did 
not  happen  in  the  manner  recorded.  Divine  Providence 
is  thus  interdicted  at  the  outset. 

We  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  Christianitj 
as  a  second  creation,  and  to  conceive  that  as  the  first 
creation  took  place  by  a  special  intervention  of  Divine 
Power,  so  did  the  second.  The  philosophy  of  the 
rationalist  will  not  admit  this,  and  therefore  his  theol- 
ogy must  be  shaped  so  as  to  exclude  it.  The  first 
miracle  in  Christianity,  is  the  birth  and  manifestation 
of  the  Saviour.  This  cannot  be  a  true  literal  history, 
says  the  rationalist,  for  it  is  incompatible  with  the 
laws  that  regulate  the  succession  of  events.  The 
miraculous  texture  of  the  gospel  narrative  may  be 
admitted,  but  the  wonders  recorded  must  be  ac- 
counted for  in  accordance  with  the  assumed  principle 
that  there  is  no  supernatural  intervention  in  the 
world's  history.  Hence  the  theory,  formerly  adverted 
to,^  that  Christ  did  not  make  the  church,  but  the 
church  made  him.  He  is  represented  as  a  pious 
Israelite,  educated  in  the  bosom  of  a  pious  family  in 
Nazareth,  who  endeavored  to  realize  in  himself  the 
Messianic  conceptions  that  prevailed  among  the  peo 
pie,     He  believed  himself  to  be  the  Messiah  of  prom 

'  Chaptel  II    p.  53. 


136  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

ise ;  the  Jews,  in  the  process  of  time,  transferred  their 
conceptions  to  him,  and  recognized  him  as  the  ex- 
pected deliverer.  Thus,  out  of  the  existing  Messianic 
notions,  and  the  impression  which  Jesus  made  by  his 
personal  qualities  and  actions,  does  rationalism  derive 
the  first  miracle  of  Christianity — the  birth,  incarnation, 
and  appearing  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  great  mystery 
of  godliness  having  been  thus  stripped  of  its  grandeur 
and  made  to  assume  the  shape  of  a  natural  event, 
the  whole  train  of  mighty  works  wrought  by  Christ 
and  his  apostles  must  undergo  a  similar  denuding 
process.  P^ationalism  admits  that,  according  to  the 
conceptions  then  prevalent  among  the  Jews,  the  Mes- 
siah was  to  be  a  worker  of  miracles  ;  and  it  infers  that, 
in  consequence  of  these  conceptions,  they  ascribed 
to  him  the  power  of  performing  them.  "  The  chain 
of  endless  causation,"  says  Strauss,  "  can  never  be 
broken,  and  a  miracle  is  an  impossibility."  They 
must  be  resolved  therefore  into  purely  natural  prin- 
ciples.^ 

The  earlier  school  of  rationalists,  which  took  hold 
of  Spinoza's  principle,  endeavored  to  show  that  the 
gospels  were  not  miraculous  in  their  texture,  that  the 
writers  never  intended  to  assert  a  miracle,  and  that  the 
events  recorded  were  simple  facts  magnified  by  the 
impression  which  they  made  on  the  senses,  or  exag- 


'  It  may  be  here  noticed  that  the  "  Progress  of  the  Intellect"  goes 
on  the  pantheistic  assumption  that  a  miracle  is  God  at  variance  with 
himself;    and,  then,  taking  a  leaf  out  of  Strauss,  accounts  for  the 
development  of  a  supernatural  Messiah.     See  vol.  i.,  p.  20,  and  vol.  ii 
chap.  8. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        137 

gerated  by  the  false  coloring  of  copyists  and  others. 
This  school  of  rationalism  has  well-nigh  become  obso- 
lete. It  was  too  materialistic  for  the  ideal  tendencies 
of  Germany.  Strauss  assailed  it.  He  declares  in 
that  misnomer,  the  "  Leben  Jesu,"  "  that  it  was  time  to 
substitute  a  new  method  of  considering  the  history  of 
Jesus  for  the  worn-out  idea  of  a  supernatural  inter- 
vention, and  a  naturalist  explanation."  He  is,  how- 
ever, but  a  naturalist  in  another  shape.  He  admits 
the  gospels  to  be  miraculous  narratives.  And  in  this 
admission  there  is  assuredly  no  more  virtue  than  in 
the  recognition,  on  a  clear  frosty  night,  of  the  stars 
that  shine  out  of  the  depths  of  the  blue  sky.  Mira- 
cles, as  Dr.  Newman  has  well  said,^  "form  the  sub- 
stance and  groundwork  of  the  narrative,  and,  like 
the  figure  of  Phidias  on  Minerva's  shield,  cannot  be 
erased  without  spoiling  the  entire  composition."  But, 
while  admitting  the  gospels  to  be  supernatural  in 
their  texture,  or  to  have  miracles  interwoven  with 
them,  he  aims  to  show  that  they  nevertheless  origin- 
ated without  an  historical  foundation ;  as  if  the  stars 
of  night  were  mere  mental  illusipns,  and  the  form  of 
Phidias  on  the  shield  a  fiction  not  a  reality.  His 
fundamental  position  is  a  naturalist  one:  "miracles 
are  not  and  never  were."  Every  narrative  that  sur- 
passes the  ordinary  course  of  events  proves  itself  not 
to  be  historically  true.  The  allegory,  the  legend,  the 
myth,  must  explain  all  the  bright  and  beneficent 
miracles  that  astonished  the  Jews  before  whom  thej 

'  Newman's  Dissertation  on  Miracles,  Encyclop.  Metrop. 


138  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

were  wrouglit,  and  that  have  drawn  forth  the  homage 
of  the  church  in  every  age.  The  naturalism  of 
Strauss  and  his  followers  may  differ  in  some  features 
from  that  of  Paulus  and  the  older  rationalists,  but  it 
is  sheer  naturalism  still.  ^ 

Is  the  feeding  of  five  thousand  men  with  five  loaves 
and  two  small  fishes  to  be  accounted  for?  This  has 
generally  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  striking 
manifestations  of  the  divine  power  of  Christ,  and  so 
great  was  the  impression  produced  on  the  multitudes 
who  witnessed  it,  that  they  cried,  "  This  is  of  a  truth 
that  Prophet  that  should  come  into  the  world."  But, 
according  to  our  rationalist,  this  great  miracle  dwindles 
down  to  the  event  of  Christ  having  had  such  an  in- 
fluence over  the  minds  of  men,  as  that  the  more 
wealthy  in.  the  crowd  who  were  well  supplied  with 
provisions,  were  constrained  to  distribute  of  their 
abundance  to  the  destitute  multitudes ;  or  it  may  be 
regarded  as  a  copy  of  the  story  of  the  manna  in  the 
desert.  The  calming  of  the  storm  on  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  is  another  of  those  mighty  works  that  have 
strikingly  displayed  the  supernatural  power  of  the 
Saviour.  It  led  the  observers  in  wonder  and  awe  to 
exclaim,  "  What  manner  of  man  is  this,  that  even  the 
winds  and  the  sea  obey  him!"  Rationalism,  however, 
has  the  explanation  at  hand.  Jesus,  by  his  calm  and 
dignified  demeanor,  tranquillized  the  troubled  minds 
of  his  disciples.  By  a  happy  coincidence,  the  raging 
elements  of  nature  at  the  same  time  became  still. 
A.nd  the  event  was  thus  magnified  into  the  miraculous. 

*  See  Dr.  Beard's  Voices  of  the  Church,  p  35. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        139" 

In  short,  is  it  the  most  magnificent  of  all   miracles, 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  that  is  to  be  accounted  for  ? 
The  rationalist  acknowledges  that  the  surprising  revo- 
lution in  the  minds  of  the  disciples  from    the    deep 
despair   into  which   they  had  sunk   at   the  death  of 
Jesus,  to  the  fearless  energy  with  which  they  shortly 
afterwards  pleaded  his  cause,  shows  that  during  the 
interval  something  extraordinary  had  happened.     What 
that  something  was,  the  Gospel  narrative  tells  us: — ■ 
the  miraculous  resurrection  of  Christ  which  powerfully 
declared  Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God.     But  naturalism 
admits   no   miracle.     Strauss    says,    the   return    of    a 
dead  person  to  life  is  impossible.     And  the  change 
which   took   place   in   the   minds  of  the  disciples  is 
resolved  into  visions,  and   these  visions  are  resolved 
into  their  own  excited  feelings.     The  most  stupendous 
events  in  the  world's  history  are  thus  made  to  vanish 
before  a  naturalist  explanation.^     And  Strauss  coolly 
and   remorselessly   looks   on,  as   the   bright  train  of 
beneficent  and  mighty  deeds,  which  have  drawn  forth 
men's  faith  and  reverence,  disappear.     No  wonder  that 
the  German  mind,  on  reflecting,  drew  back  from,  or 
refused   assent   to   such   critical   principles   as    these, 
inasmuch  as  they  were  seen  to  uproot  all   our  hold 
upon  the  past,  and  to  involve  all  history  in  a  mythical 
illusion. 

Pantheism  and  naturalism  may  be  said  to  meet  in 
this  theory,  which  we  denounce  as  one  of  the  most 
unphilosophical  that  was  ever  attempted  to  be  imposed 
upon  the  world.     Its  dogged  adherence,  in  spite  of 

'   See  Tholuck,  in  Dr.  Beard,  p.  151. 


140  naturalism;  or  the  denial 

all  evidence,  to  the  position  that  miracles  are  im- 
possible, is  consistent  only  with  absolute  atheism  or 
pantheism.  Men  who  adopt,  as  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, the  impossibility  of  supernatural  intervention, 
must  either  deny  that  God  is,  or  deprive  Him  of  his 
personality.  Strauss,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  is 
a,  pantheist  in  the  extreme.  He  stands  at  that  point 
where  atheism  and  pantheism  face  each  other,  and 
shake  hands.  And  just  as  one  impiety  naturally 
follows  another,  does  his  theory  of  Christianity  arise 
out  of  his  other  infidel  views.  But  admit  the  existence 
of  a  first  Intelligent  Cause,  the  creator  of  heaven  and 
earth,  the  living  God, — a  necessary  truth  granted  by 
all  sound  reasoners — and  where  is  the  rationality  in 
denying  that  he  either  does  or  can  interpose  in  the 
system  of  things  which  he  has  established?  Reason- 
ing a  ]}riori^  and  in  accordance  with  a  pure  theism, 
we  would  have  been  led  to  conclude  that  He  who 
made  the  worlds  would  continue  to  govern  them,  and 
that,  for  great  and  special  ends,  he  would  interpose  in 
a  special  and  extraordinary  manner.  Whether  he  has 
done  so  or  not  must  be  decided  on  the  broad  ground 
of  evidence.  The  axiom  of  Strauss  contravenes  the 
very  foundation  principles  of  the  inductive  philosophy. 
A  miracle  is  neither  impossible  nor  incredible,  on  the 
supposition  of  a  God. 

Miracles  are  supernatural  facts,  things  which  be- 
speak the  intervention  of  a  cause  superior  to  and 
having  a  supreme  control  over  all  natural  causes.  It 
matters  not,  in  cur  present  argument,  whether  we 
strictly  define  them  as   lying   beyond   the  sphere  of 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVENMENT.  141 

natural  laws,  or  as  involving  the  idea  of  suspension  of 
or  apposition  to  these  laws.  In  either  case  we  demand 
the  interposition  of  God.  To  raise  a  dead  man  to 
life,  or  to  walk  upon  the  sea,  may  be  viewed  either  as 
above  the  range  of  the  established  laws  of  nature,  or 
as  directly  contrary  to  them;  but,  on  either  suppo- 
sition, the  operation  is  divine.  The  latter  point  of 
view  is  commonly,  though  not  universally,  taken 
by  evangelical  men  in  our  country;  the  former 
is  the  stand-point  of  distinguished  Christian  divines 
on  the  Continent.  Strauss  and  his  school  lay  down 
the  position  that  nature  is  but  a  development  of 
God.  He  says  the  chain  of  endless  causation  cannot 
be  broken ;  and  taking  the  common  idea  of  miracles, 
as  violations  or  suspensions  of  natural  laws,  he  de- 
clares a  miracle  to  be  impossible.  Neander,  Miiller, 
D'Aubigne,  and  other  Continental  divines,  without 
conceding  anything  to  the  rationalists,  oppose  them, 
by  maintaining  that  miraculous  phenomena  lie  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  those  laws,  and  are  not  violations 
of  them.  And  in  this  theory  they  are  joined  by  some 
of  our 'own  eminent  evangelical  writers,  such  as  Trench, 
Yaughan,  Westcott,  and  the  author  of  "  The  Resto- 
ration of  Belief"^  The  idea  of  supernatural  inter- 
vention is  prominent,  however,  in  either  view,  and  that 
is  not  to  be  tolerated  by  naturalism.  Miracles  may 
be  perfectly  natural,  viewed  in  reference  to  a  higher 
world,  but  they  are  supernatural  viewed  in  reference 
to  this.  "  At  the  establishment  of  Christianity,"  says 
D'Aubigne,  "the  superior  world  acted  upon  the  infe- 

'  Page  232. 


142  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

rior  world,  conformably  to  tlie  laws  wliich  are  peculiar 
to  it ;  a  miracle  is  nothing  more  tlian  this."^  Be  the 
miracle  contrary  to,  or  lying  beyond,  the  subordinate 
laws  of  physical  nature,  it  is  doubtless  in  conformity 
■with  the  moral  and  supreme  law  of  the  universe, 
"God,  therefore,"  says  Gioberti,  "far  from  disturbing 
universal  harmony,  maintains  it,  by  interrupting  the 
course  of  physical  forces  in  certain  determinate  cases, 
and  for  a  most  wise  end."- 

Hume  and  the  older  deists,  said  a  miracle  is  incred- 
ible. Strauss  and  the  modern  rationalists,  affirm  a 
miracle  to  be  impossible.  Hume's  fallacy,  as  has  often 
been  shown,  lay  in  confounding  two  distinct  expe- 
riences, the  uniform  experience  of  the  individual,  and 


'  The  Miracles  ;  or,  Two  Errors. 

^  Dr.  "Wardlaw,  in  Lis  recent  able  work  "  On  Miracles,"  advo- 
cates what  may  be  called  the  old  view,  and  offers  some  strictures  on 
Drs.  Vaughan  and  Beard,  and  Mr.  Trench,  who  contend  that  miracles 
are  not  '•'•contra  naturam,  but  prcetcr  naturam,  and  siipra  naturam." 
And  yet  he  says  of  the  miraculous  event,  "  it  does  not  to  mo  seem 
very  material,  whether  we  speak  of  it  as  beyond  nature,  or  above 
nature,  or  beside  nature,  or  against  nature,  or  contrary  to  nature. — 
whether  as  a  suspension,  an  interruption,  a  contravention,  or  a 
violation  of  nature's  laws; — provided  we  are  understanding  'na- 
ture and  nature's  laws'  as  having  reference  to  the  ph3'sical  economy 
of  our  own  system." — (P.  31.)  This  we  presume,  is  just  tJieir  m\- 
derstanding  when,  according  to  Mr.  AYestcott,  they  say,  •'  that  there 
is  nothing  in  miracles  contrary  to  nature,  while  all  is  above  nature  : 
— that  the  laws  of  existences  around  us  are  not  broken,  but  resolved 
into  higher  laws." — Gosjjel  Harmony^  p.  17.  We  are  disposed  to 
regard  this  discussion  as  not  "  much  more  than  a  logomachy,"  for 
the  great  idea  of  supernatural  intervention  is  unaffected  by  it.  At 
the  same  time,  the  '•  above  and  beyond  nature"  view  seems  the 
more  advantageous  one  in  cutting  away  the  ground  from  beneath 
the  German  anti-miracle  school. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.         143 

the  uniform  experience  of  mankind  viewed  as  a  whole. 
He  reasoned   as   if  his  own  experience  embraced  a 
knowledge  of  all  causes,  and  as  if  his  knowledge  of 
the  power  of  all  causes  was  so  complete  that  he  was 
warranted  to  say,  there  is  not  a  cause  able  or  willing 
to  work   miracles.     His  own  uniform   experience,  as 
an  individual,  bore  testimony  to  the  constancy  of  the 
laws  of  nature.     And  the  fallacy  consisted  in  exalting 
that  experience   into   the    experience   of  the   human 
race.     In  short,  the  argument  is  based  upon  a  gross 
assumption.     By  it  he  arrogates  to  himself  a  knowl- 
edge which  no  finite   intelligence  can   possess.     The 
argument  fails  also  i]i  the  principle  on  which  it  would 
set  aside  the  testimony  of  witnesses  adduced  to  prove 
a  miracle.     Hume   reasons   thus:  there   are   two  tes 
timonies  in  the   case — the  testimony  of  uniform   ex 
perience   in   afiirming   the  constancy  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  and   the   testimony  of  witnesses  in   favor  of 
a  miracle  or  deviation  from  these  ordinary  laws.     Ng 
number   of  witnesses  for  the   miracle   can   equal   the 
evidence  for  the  constancy  of  nature.     It  is  more  pro- 
bable that  the  witnesses  should  have  been  deceived, 
however  apparently  strong  their  testimony,  than  that 
the  laws  of  nature  should  have  been  departed  from. 
Thus,  all  miracles  are  denied,  without  any  regard  to 
the  kind  or  quality  of  proof  by  which  they  are  sup- 
ported.    The   rationalist   entrenches    himself    behind 
the  position  of  the   incredibility  or  impossibility  of 
miracles,  and  levels  to  the  ground  the  whole  structure 
of  Christianity.     Now,  it  is  sufiicient  to  say  to  this,  that, 
in  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life,  we  value  testimony 


144  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

rather  for  its  quality  tlian  for  its  quantity.  If  a  few 
witnesses  of  known  veracity  attest  an  extraordinary 
occurrence,  we  confide  in  their  testimony  as  naturally 
as  we  do  in  the  testimony  of  thousands  of  persons 
who  had  previously  deposed  to  the  ordinary  course 
of  events.  On  the  very  same  principle,  then,  we 
should,  as  has  been  satisfactorily  argued,  credit  testi- 
mony unexceptionable  in  its  quality  when  it  is  adduced 
not  only  in  proof  of  the  extraordinary,  but  when  it 
carries  us  a  step  higher — to  the  supernatural  or 
miraculous.  Well-attested  miracles  can  consistently 
be  denied  only  on  atheistical,  or,  what  in  this  case 
amounts  to  the  same  thing,  pantheistical  principles. 
Once  admit  the  existence  of  a  Personal  God,  himself 
uncaused  and  the  cause  of  all,  and  you  cannot 
rationally  deny  that  He  may  interpose  in  the  con- 
cerns of  the  universe.  Grant  that  the  Almighty  in- 
tervened in  calling  into  existence  the  first  creation, 
and  you  cannot  reasonably  withhold  your  assent,  that, 
if  evidence  in  support  of  it  exist,  he  may  have  inter- 
vened in  originating  Christianity,  the  second  creation. 
The  rationalist  who,  in  the  face  of  all  evidence,  takes 
up  the  position  that  miracles  are  impossible,  must 
be  driven  back  to  another  position,  viz.  the  non-exist- 
ence of  a  Being  who  can  perform  supernatural  works. 
Strauss,  in  maintaining  the  impossibility  of  miracles, 
as  well  as  Hume  in  asserting  their  incredibility,  has 
been  flagrantly  guilty  of  a  ^etitio  principii — a  begging 
of  the  question.  It  is  nothing  more  than  his  ijpse 
dixit.  The  world  has  had  more  than  enough  of  this 
philosophy,  falsely  so  called,  which  would  supersede 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNM,:KT.         145 

all  investigation  into  the  testimony  for  miracles  by 
proclaiming  it  as  an  axiom  that  miracles  are  impos- 
sible, or  that  no  evidence  can  substantiate  them.  It 
is  alike  opposed  to  the  cautious  philosophy  of  Bacon, 
and  to  the  facts  and  principles  of  Holy  Scripture.  It 
is  the  taking  of  a  one-sided,  and  consequently  a  very 
erroneous  view  of  God's  universe.  The  moral  system 
is  ignored,  a  system  as  real  and  palpable  as  the  phys- 
ical, though  immeasurably  superior  to  it.  And  the 
remark  is  as  applicable  to  the  men  of  the  Strauss 
school  as  to  the  men  of  the  Hume  school:  their 
antecedent  objections  against  miracles  "  will  be  found 
nearly  all  to  arise  from  forgetfulness  of  the  existence 
of  moral  laws.  In  their  zeal  to  perfect  the  laws  of 
matter,  they  most  unphilosophically  overlook  a  more 
sublime  system,  which  contains  disclosures  not  only  of 
the  Being  but  of  the  Will  of  God."^ 

But  Scripture  itself,  under  this  system  of  natu- 
ralism, is,  as  a  whole,  disrobed  of  its  glory.  The 
special  interposition  of  God  in  inspiring  the  sacred 
writers,  is  as  much  excluded  as  his  interposition  in 
working  the  Bible  miracles.  And,  if  the  mighty 
deeds  recorded  sink  down  to  the  level  of  common 
events,  why  should  not  the  Holy  Book  itself  descend 
to  the  level  of  a  common  treatise  ?  John  Foster  has 
said:  "surely  it  is  fair  to  believe  that  those  who 
received  from  heaven  superhuman  power,  received 
likewise  superhuman  wisdom.  Having  rung  the  great 
bell  of  the  universe,  the  sermon  to  follow  must  be 
extraordinary."     Naturalism  having  denied  the  super- 

*  Newman's  Dissertation,  Encyclop.  Metrop. 
10 


146  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

human  power,  consistently  with  its  own  principles, 
denies  the  superhuman  wisdom.  The  bell,  according 
to  it,  was  nothing  uncommon,  and  the  sermon  that 
followed  was  nothing  transcendent.  The  denial  of 
the  miracles  has,  in  fact,  led  to  the  denial  of  the  in- 
spiration. It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Bible  records 
miracles.  It  must  be  admitted  also  that  the  Bible 
claims  special  inspiration.  Naturalism  cannot  admit 
the  miracles,  and  consequently  it  cannot  concede 
that  the  prophets  and  apostles,  holy  men  of  God, 
spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  De 
Wette  and  others  attacked  the  Old  Testament,  and 
Strauss  has  made  a  similar  onslaught  on  the  New, 
from  the  same  naturalist  position.  The  books  must 
be  treated  as  spurious  because  they  narrate  predictions 
and  miracles,  things  which  naturalism  cannot  away 
with.  We  find,  accordingly,  in  the  writings  of  the  old 
English  deists,  in  the  Wolfenbuttel  Fragments,  and 
in  a  succession  of  such  like  productions  down  to  that 
paragon  of  honest  book- writing — "  Phases  of  F-^ith," 
a  heap  of  apparent  contradictions  raked  together  fiom 
all  quarters,  the  fruit  of  a  shallow  criticism  aLid  an 
irreligious  spirit,  in  order  to  falsify  the  Book  which 
claims  to  have  been  given  by  inspiration  of  God. 
Hatred  of  the  supernatural,  which  is  interwoven  with 
every  page  of  Scripture,  has  led  to  the  various  disin- 
genuous attempts  to  depreciate  the  testimony  of  the 
inspired  writers.  It  is  related  that  a  Swedish  traveller, 
in  looking  through  the  library  of  Voltaire,  found 
Calmet's  Commentary  with  slips  of  paper  inserted, 
on  which  were  written  the  difficulties  noticed  by  Cal- 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  147 

met,  witliout  the  slightest  reference  to  the  solutions 
given  by  the  commentator.  The  Swede,  who,  in  other 
respects,  admired  the  brilliant  Frenchman,  denounced 
this  conduct  as  dishonorable.  And  yet,  as  Hengsten- 
berg  remarks,^  our  modern  rationalist  critics  have 
acted  in  a  similar  manner,  Theodore  Parker,  Francis 
William  Newman,  and  Robert  William  Mackay,"  who 
make  no  secret  of  the  Gamaliels  at  whose  feet  they 
have  been  sitting,  serve  up  the  often-refuted  ob- 
jections against  the  infallibility  of  the  gacred  writers, 
as  if  they  were  a  fresh  course,  and  then,  on  the 
assumption  of  their  gross  mistakes  and  contradictions, 
conclude  against  their  miraculous  inspiration. 

The  age  in  which  we  live  is  universal  in  its  tenden- 
cies. It  must  have  all  things  in  common.  The  mind 
has  become  intolerant  of  monopolies.  And  not  a  few 
writers  in  our  own  and  other  lands  are  laborinsr  to 

o 

bring  the  Bible  down  from  its  proud  pre-eminence, 
stripping  it  of  its  solitary  grandeur,  and  allowing  it  no 
other  inspiration  than  that  which  is  common  to  men. 
The  controversy  may  be  said  to  have  shifted  its  ground, 
or  to  present  a  new  phasis,  in  consequence  of  a  new 
philosophic  influence.  Formerly,  our  Christian  apolo- 
gists had  to  contend  for  the  very  element  of  inspira- 
tion in  the  sacred  books,  as  they  had  to  contend  for 
the  miraculous  texture  of  the  Gospel  narratives  ;  now, 
we  have  to  strive  for  their  special  claim  to  the  Divine 
inbreathing,  against  those  who  would  merge  them  in 

'  Hengsteuberg  on  the  Pentateuch,  vol.  i.,  p.  47. 
^  See  Parker's  Discourses,  Newman's  Phases  of  Faith,  and  Mackaj's 
Progress  of  the  Intellect,  passim. 


148  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

an  influence  common  as  the  light  or  air  of  heaven. 
Thus  Mr.  Parker/  speaking  after  the  Emerson  fashion, 
tells  us,  "  inspiration,  like  God's  omnipresence,  is  not 
limited  to  the  few  writers  claimed  by  the  Jews,  Chris- 
tians, or  Mahometans,  but  it  is  coextensive  with  the 
race."  Minos  and  Moses,  David  and  Pindar,  Leibnitz 
and  Paul,  Newton  and  Simon  Peter,  "  receive  into 
their  various  forms  the  one  spirit  from  God  most 
high."  Yea,  "  this  inspiration  is  limited  to  no  sect, 
age,  or  nation:  It  is  wide  as  the  world,  and  common 
as  God."  The  Bible  thus  ceases  to  be  the  law  and 
the  testimony,  the  only  infallible  directory  of  faith  and 
morals,  and  men  may  turn  it  into  myths  and  legends, 
receive  or  reject  it,  as  they  please.  But  this  attempt 
to  confound  inspiration  and  omnipresence  goes  on 
the  assumption  that  as  God  is  present  everywhere, 
He  cannot  be  specially  present  anywhere  ;  that  as  He 
may  be  said  to  exert  a  common  influence  on  the 
minds  of  all  men,  He  cannot  be  said  to  exert  a  super- 
natural influence  on  the  minds  of  a  chosen  number 
of  men.  An  assumption  of  the  same  nature  and 
philosophic  value  as  that  of  Strauss — miracles  are 
impossible. 

The  Bible  comes  to  us  claiming  to  have  been  given 
by  miraculous  inspiration  of  God — an  inspiration  sepa- 
rated by  an  impassable  gulf  from  that  of  mere  genius — 
and,  in  support  of  its  claims,  presents  a  large  amount  of 
clear  and  strong  evidence.  There  is  an  impregnable 
external  testimony  encircling  it  "  as  the  mountains  are 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  pp.  161 — 171. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  149 

round  about  Jerusalem,"  and,  on  its  pages,  tlie  fingei 
of  God  is  not  less  clearly  manifested  than  on  the  starry- 
heavens.  This  Book  stands  above  and  apart  from 
the  sublimest  effusions  of  human  genius,  revealing 
truths  bearing  on  man's  highest  interests  and  lying 
beyond  the  sphere  where  science  and  genius  make 
their  discoveries, — having  a  history  quite  unparalleled 
and  miraculous, — and  producing  on  individuals  and 
communities  such  radical  and  beneficent  changes  of 
heart  and  life,  as  no  other  book  in  the  world  has  ef- 
fected. It  professes  to  have  received  its  grand  revela- 
tions directly  from  above,  and  to  have  transmitted 
them  under  such  infallible  guidance  as  entitles  it  to  be 
regarded  as  the  oracle  of  God.  We  meddle  not  with 
the  question  of  degrees  of  inspiration.  We  advocate 
no  theory  of  mechanical  dictation.  It  is  enough,  but 
not  more  than  enough,  that  we  hold  a  special  influence 
ranging  from  the  highest  point,  or  direct  revelation, 
down  to  the  lowest  limit,  or  superintendence  as  a  guard 
against  error.  We  take  the  fact,  as  it  stands — all  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God.  The  mode  does 
not  trouble  us.  Scripture,  in  its  rich  diversity  of  style, 
evinces  free  mental  action  on  the  part  of  the  sacred 
writers,  while  it  asserts  that  action  to  have  been  under 
the  infallible  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  The 
plenary  inspira,tion,  we  hold,  in  perfect  consistency 
with  the  human  peculiarities.  Our  position  "  presup- 
poses that  the  same  providential  power  which  gave 
the  message  selected  the  messenger,  and  implies  that 
the  traits  of  individual  character  and  the  peculiarities 
of  manner  and  purpose,  which  are  displayed  in  the 


150  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

composition  and  language  of  the  sacred  writings,  are 
essential  to  the  perfect  exhibition  of  their  meaning. 
...  It  preserves  absolute  truthfulness  with  perfect 
humanity,  so  that  the  nature  of  man  is  not  neutralized, 
if  we  may  thus  speak,  by  the  Divine  agency,  and  the 
truth  of  God  is  not  modified,  but  exactly  expressed  in 
one  of  its  several  aspects,  by  the  individual  mind. 
Each  element  performs  its  perfect  work,  and  in  re- 
ligion, as  well  as  in  philosophy,  we  find  a  glorious 
reality  based  upon  a  true  antithesis."^  This  is  the 
Bible  claim.  And  if  this  be  not  conceded  on  the 
ground  of  the  internal  and  external  evidence,  then 
the  Bible,  in  its  structure,  in  its  characteristic  truths, 
in  the  simplicity  and  majesty  of  its  style,  in  its  match- 
less character  of  Christ,  in  its  influence  on  and 
present  position  in  the  world, — is  a  greater  miracle 
than  the  miraculous  inspiration  which  naturalism 
would  set  aside.  Discrepancies  we  admit,  such  dis- 
crepancies as  might  have  been  expected  to  result  from 
the  transmission  of  a  book  through  so  many  hands, 
languages,  and  ages,  unless  shielded  so  miraculously 
at  every  point  that  the  finger  of  no  copyist  could  in- 
advertently have  introduced  a  wrong  date  or  omitted 
a  letter.  But  what  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat  ?  A 
large  number  of  discrepancies,  on  which  infidel  objec- 
tions were  grounded,  have  vanished  before  the  appli- 
cation of  a  true  and  searching  criticism,  and  we  an- 
ticipate that  the  residue  will  be  still  further  diminished 
till  it  shall  be  accounted  as  nothing.  There  is  no 
discrepancy  in  regard  to  the  substantial  contents  of 

"  Westcott's  Elements  of  the  Gospel  Harmony,  pp.  9,  10. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        151 

Clifistianitj,  and  to  found  an  argument  against  the 
miraculous  inspiration  of  Scripture  on  a  few  unre- 
solved variances,  is  no  less  irrational  than  to  argue 
against  the  perfections  of  God  because  of  some  con- 
flicting natural  phenomena.^  The  Bible,  in  its  dis- 
closures, history,  and  position,  is  as  unaccountable 
without  the  admission  of  special  inspiration,  as  the 
world  and  the  fulness  thereof  without  the  creating 
and  upholding  hand  of  God.^ 

The  position  taken  up  by  Mr.  Morell  on  this  ques- 
tion, however  stoutly  he,  in  other  respects,  denounces 
rationalism,  is  little  better  than  a  rationalist  one.  He 
indeed  admits  supernatural  agency,  but  it  is  a  mere 
vivifying  operation,  a  heightening  or  clearing  of  the 
power  of  intuition,  not  generically  different  from  the 
inspirations  of  genius  or  the  spiritual  elevation  com- 
mon to  Christians.  "  Inspiration,"  according  to  him, 
"depends  upon  the  clearness,  force  and  accuracy  of 
a  man's  religious  intuitions.^  ...  It  does  not  involve 
any  form  of  intelligence  essentially  different  from  what 

'  Butler's  Analogy,  p.  8.     (Dublin,  1849.) 

^  We  make  no  use  of  the  j^e^z^lw  principii  in  the  above  remarks. 
We  do  not  say  to  our  opponents,  The  Scriptures  are  inspired,  and 
therefore  their  statements  must  be  true.  But  we  ground  an  argument 
for  their  inspiration  on  their  internal  structure  and  external  position 
The  author  of  "  The  Kestoration  of  Belief,"  observes,  "  We  are 
often  told  that  we  timidly  hold  up  this  '  Inspiration,'  as  a  screen, 
lest  the  documents  of  our  faith  should  come  to  be  dealt  with  severely, 
in  the  mode  that  is  proper  to  historic  criticism."  With  him  we  say, 
"  Only  let  this  Historic  Severity  take  its  free  course,  and  Dis  jelief 
will  be  driven  from  its  last  standing-place.  .  .  .  It  would  witi: er 
like  the  grass  of  the  tropics." — P.  127. 

^  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  176. 


152  naturalism;  oh,  the  denial 

we  already  possess.^  .  .  .  It  is  a  higher  potency  of  a  cer- 
tain form  of  consciousness,  which  every  man  to  some 
degree  possesses."^  Indeed,  if  his  theory  be  true,  in- 
spiration is  not  only  a  much  less  extraordinary  thing 
than  the  church  has  imagined,  but  there  is  nothing  to 
hinder  it  taking  place  again  and  a  supplement  being 
made  to  the  volume  of  revelation.  Let  the  religious 
consciousness  be  elevated,  the  moral  nature  purified, 
and  the  power  of  spiritual  vision  increased,  and,  as 
he  asks,  what  do  we  require  more  in  inspiration? 
He  denies  that  any  special  Divine  commission  to 
write  was  given  to  the  sacred  penmen,  "  that  each 
book  came  forth  with  a  specific  impress  of  Deity  upon 
it,"^ — or  that  the  providence  of  God  watched  over  the 
composition  and  construction  of  the  Bible  in  any 
other  sense  than  Providence  superintends  every  event 
bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  man."*  The  inspired 
word,  with  him,  is  just  a  transcript  of  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  writers,  a  representation  of  "  the 
bright  impressions  of  apostolic  men," — the  result  of 
"  the  Divine  light  which  vfas  granted  to  the  age,  and 
to  the  mind  of  the  author — a  gift  which  he  was  left 
to  make  use  of  as  necessity  or  propriety  might  sug- 
gest."^ He  thus  cuts  up  infallibility  by  the  root,  that 
error  which,  he  and  Mr.  Newman  hold,  has  been  in- 
troduced into  the  idea  of  inspiration.  And  then  he 
thinks  that,  without  irreverence,*^  he  can  speak  of  mis- 
statements made  by  the  Evangelists,  and  of  false 
reasoning  in  Paul  the  most  logical  of  the  apostles. 

'  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  151.  '  Ibid.,  p.  166. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  IGO.     «  Ibid.,  p.  183.     '  Ibid.,  p.  161.     »  Ibid.,  p.  173. 


OF    THE   DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        153 

It  is  the  strangest  part  of  this  imsatisfactoiy  theory, 
that  inspiration  cannot  apply  to  processes  of  reason- 
ing, that  "  it  can  neither  give  any  certitude,  nor  guard 
against  any  errors  which  an  accurate  thinker  could 
not  detect  for  himself."^  He  confounds  logic  as  an 
instrument  with  the  understanding  that  employs  it 
when  he  speaks  of  inspired  logic  as  an  absurdity.  Let 
us  suppose  a  reasoner  so  accurate  that  he  errs  only 
once  in  a  hundred  times.  That  one  error,  however, 
may  have  been  very  important.  What  impossibility  is 
there  in  the  supposition  of  a  supernatural  influence 
carrying  up  the  mind  from  general  to  universal  accu- 
racy— as  effectually  excluding  error  from  the  hun- 
dredth process  as  it  had  been  excluded  up  to  the 
ninety-ninth  ?  God,  assuredly,  can  suggest  a  train  of 
reasoning  to  the  mind  of  an  individual,  and  control 
that  mind  so  as  to  lead  it  to  a  right  conclusion,  and 
extend  that  control  over  the  writer  so  as  to  enable 
him  to  convey  to  others  both  the  process  and  the 
result  in  terms  free  from  error.  This,  we  maintain, 
has  been  done  in  the  case  of  Paul.  In  this,  there  is 
no  absurdity.  Without  this,  we  have  no  security  that 
Scripture  is  inspired  of  God. 

All  the  inspiration  which  Mr.  Morell  allows,  is  re- 
stricted to'  brightening  and  elevating  the  intuitional 
faculty  so  as  to  render  it  receptive  of  truth.  He 
leaves  the  whole  after-process,  involved  in  giving  a 
formal  expression  to  the  intuitions,  to  the  natural 
working  of  the  human  faculties  ;  and  denounces  the 
idea  of  Scripture  being  written  under  the  spo-.'/il 
'  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Keligiou,  p.  174. 


154  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

direction  of  the  Spirit  as  a  pernicious  and  indefensible 
dogma.  This  we  regard  as  nothing  less  than  an 
attempt  to  strip  Scripture  of  its  supernatural  character. 
Inspiration  is  denied  to  the  written  word  contrary  to 
its  own  claims,  and  it  is  attributed  exclusively  to  a 
certain  form  of  man's  own  consciousness.  The  Bible, 
in  this  case,  is  not  God's  word  but  man's.  The  writers 
may  have  seen  visions  and  had  the  truth  revealed  in 
their  minds,  but  we  have  no  security  that  they  have 
been  kept  from  error  in  recording  what  they  received, 
or  that  they  have  conveyed  the  truth  purely  to  us. 
The  idea  that  they  had  no  special  commission  to  write 
and  no  special  guidance  in  writing,  does  not  harmo- 
nize with  the  solemn  announcement  with  which  they 
often  begin  their  oracles,  "  Thus  saitli  the  Lord ;" 
or  with  the  statements,  "holy  men  of  God  spake  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and,  "  all  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God."  The  elevation 
of  the  religious  consciousness,  by  special  and  extraor- 
dinary agencies,  may  account  for  the  divine  conceptions 
of  the  sacred  penmen.  But,  without  a  continued 
supernatural  agency,  under  which  the  minds  of  the 
writers  were  allowed  to  develop  their  characteristic 
peculiarities,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  structure 
of  the  books,  the  "  halo  of  Divine  glory,"  in  which 
these  conceptions  are  expressed.  The  internal  evi- 
dence shows  that  in  the  work  of  composition  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  was  with  them. 

Mr.    Morell   fails   to   substantiate   the   old   charges 
adduced   to   weaken   that  evidence.      He   urges'  the 

'  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Eeligion,  p.  167. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.         155 

imperfect  morality  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  if  the 
word  of  God  necessarily  implied  approval  of  all  that  it 
records.  He  urges^  discrepancies  between  some  of 
the  scriptural  statements  and  scientific  truth,  as  if  the 
book  of  Genesis  pretended  to  give  a  scientific  account 
of  the  creation,  or  as  if  it  were  in  open  conflict  with 
the  results  of  geological  research.  He  charges  Paul 
with  errors  in  reasoning,  without  specifying  a  single 
instance  ;  and  Peter  with  arguing  perversely  about  the 
circumcision,  whereas  everybody  knows  that  Peter  only 
acted  against  his  own  conviction."  In  this  way  he 
backs  his  assertions  that  it  would  not  be  very  reverent 
to  suppose  the  Spirit  of  God  had  anything  to  do  with 
such  statements,  and  that  the  writers  of  them  were 
left  to  the  influence  of  the  imperfect  religious,  moral, 
and  scientific  ideas  of  their  times.  These  are  things 
much  more  easily  said  than  proven.  The  only  dis- 
crepancies on  which  objections  against  plenary  inspi- 
ration can  be  raised,  are  but  as  the  sn§lll  dust  in  the 
balance,  compared  with  the  weight  of  proof  that  the 
book  is,  what  it  claims  to  be,  the  word  of  God.  Even 
that  small  dust,  we  are  warranted  from  the  past  to 
believe,  will  become  yet  smaller  and  may  ultimately 
vanish  away.  Mr.  Morell's  theory  of  inspiration  may 
naturally  result  from  his  own  philosophical  principles, 
but  it  explains  nothing,  is  at  variance  with  palpable 
evidence,  at  open  conflict  with  scriptural  claim,  makes 
room  for  the  most  latitudinarian  interpretations,  and, 
if  brought  to  bear  upon  the  progress  of  the  church, 

'  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  170.         '  Ibid.,  p.  176. 


156  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

would  be  long  in  ushering  in  the  brighter  day,  of 
which  he  speaks,  when  the  gospel  would  come  to  us, 
not  in  word  only,  but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit 
and  in  power. 


Our  investigation  into  naturalism  has  led  us  from 
the  point  where  Divine  Providence  is  ignored  in  sus- 
taining and  garnishing  the  material  universe,  to  the 
point  where  his  presence  is  excluded  from  the  Bible 
— ^his  holy  temple.  We  might  have  passed  on  to  notice 
the  denial  of  Divine  influence  in  regenerating  the  souls 
of  men.  But  this  will  find  a  place  in  the  next  chapter, 
when  speaking  of  the  denial  of  the  Divine  redemption. 
We  have  tracked  the  rationalistic  spirit  up  to  the  very 
shrine  of  the  holy  oracle,  and  found  it  there  lurking 
under  the  Christian  name  and  professing  adherence 
to  the  Christian  faith.  Between  the  two  points  there 
is  doubtless  a%ulf,  but  it  is  not  an  impassable  one. 
The  man  who  excludes  miraculous  inspiration  from 
the  Bible,  may  admit  supernatural  agency  in  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  even  in  giving  birth  to 
Christianity ;  but,  in  that  exclusion,  he  occupies  a 
naturalist  position.  On  reviewing  our  track,  then,  we 
see  that,  in  physical  science,  naturalism  has  given 
rise  to  the  mechanical  theory  of  the  universe;  in 
moral  philosophy,  it  has  led  men  to  attach  an  exclu- 
sive importance  to  external  circumstances  as  influenc- 
ing human  conduct ;  and  in  theology,  it  has  banished 
the  supernatural  from  the  sphere  of  Christianity,  so 
a*s  to  account  for  its  origin  and  influence  on  ordinary 


OF   THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        157 

principles,  or  has  left  but  partial  room  for  its  opera- 
tion. With  a  few  summary  remarks  upon  the  theory 
as  a  whole,  we  shall  close  our  notice  of  it. 

1.  The  idea  of  an  entirely  self-sustaining  universe  is 
hosed  ujpon  a  false  analogy.  The  regularity  of  nature's 
operations  may  have  given  rise  in  some  minds  to  the 
opinion.  And  not  a  few  of  its  abettors  may  main- 
tain, that  it  is  a  more  exalted  conception  of  God  to 
represent  the  multiplicity  of  effects  which  take  place 
in  nature  as  the  result  of  a  single  original  act  of  his 
power,  than  to  conceive  of  Him  as  ever  interposing  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world.  Order  is  the  law  of  heaven. 
The  very  regularity  which  is  adduced  to  favor  the 
mechanical  theory,  is  adduced  more  justly  in  proof  of 
the  Divine  presiding  agency.  And  it  is  surely  more 
exalting  to  God  to  view  the  universe  as  directly  de- 
pendent on  his  arm,  and  ever  pervaded  by  his  pre- 
sence, than  to  compliment  him  out  of  it  by  attributing 
to  it  a  self-sustained  action.  The  falseness  of  the 
analogy,  however,  is  obvious.  The  movements  in  a 
piece  of  mechanism  do  not,  properly  speaking,  origin- 
ate with  the  mechanist.  He  only  employs  pre- 
existing forces,  such  as  gravity,  elasticity,  cohesion, 
and  repulsion.  Now,  these  powers  are  the  very  things 
to  be  accounted  for  in  the  theory  which  likens  the 
universe  to  a  machine.^  In  a  piece  of  human 
mechanism,  we  can  account  for  these  properties 
irrespective  altogether  of  the  workman.  They  were 
there  before  he  existed,  and  they  continue  after  he  is 

'  Dugald  Stewart. 


158  naturalism;  or  the  denial 

gone.  But,  that  the  universe,  after  havmg  been  con- 
structed and  set  m  motion  by  the  Almighty,  has 
continued  to  revolve  and  develop  itself  ever  since, 
without  his  providential  agency,  is  a  theory  that  is 
unsupported  by  any  analogy  whatever.  And  in  the 
absence  of  all  true  analogy,  it  is  more  rational  to  view 
the  creation  as  always  directly  dependent  on  the 
Creator,  than  to  view  it  as  self-sustained.  In  fact,  it 
is  as  easy  to  conceive  a  self-originated  world  as  of 
a  self-subsisting  world.  The  thing  is  an  impossibility. 
Dr.  Harris  says,^  "  The  reasoning  which  compliments 
God  out  of  the  material  universe  not  unfrequently 
ends  in  excluding  Him  from  the  throne  of  His  moral 
government."  May  it  not  be  said  that  the  one  is  done 
for  the  sake  of  the  other  ? 

2.  This  theory,  as  it  is  often  advocated,  is  chargeable 
luitli  antliropomorpMsm.  While  professing  to  exalt 
God,  it  virtually  degrades  Him.  It  thinks  of  Him  as 
if  He  were  such  an  one  as  ourselves.  The  piece  of 
human  mechanism  saves  the  labor  of  the  artist. 
He  can  set  it  in  motion  and  go  his  way.  And  the 
machine  is  considered  to  be  more  ingenious  and 
complete,  the  more  that  it  dispenses  with  the  inter- 
position of  the  constructor.  But  to  reason  in  a  similar 
manner  regarding  the  Almighty  and  His  works,  is  to 
ascribe  unto  Him  the  limitations  and  imperfections 
of  the  human  faculties.  His  presence  in  one  part  of 
his  dominions  does  not  imply  his  absence  elsewhere. 
An   infidel   philosophy   has   often,    by   the   anthropo- 

'  Pre-2\.damite  Earth,  i^.  128. 


OF   THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT,        159 

morphisin  of  its  reasoning,  endeavored,  with  a 
feigned  homage,  to  exclude  the  Eternal  from  the 
management  of  the  universe.  This  was  involved 
in  the  astronomical  objection  against  Christianity, 
which  has  been  so  eloquently  repelled  by  Dr.  Chal- 
mers in  his  "  Astronomical  Discourses."  The  modern 
astronomy  has  wonderfully  enlarged  our  conceptions 
of  the  magnitude  and  extent  of  the  material  universe, 
and  shown  that  this  earth  occupies  but  a  small  place 
in  the  vast  creation.  Philosophical  infidels  urged 
that  our  world,  being  comparatively  so  insignificant, 
could  not  have  had  centered  upon  it  such  special 
regards  of  the  Almighty  as  the  Christian  scheme 
represents.  At  the  very  root  of  this  objection,  lay  the 
principle  of  conceiving  of  the  Most  High  as  acting 
after  the  manner  of  men.  It  is  just  clothing  the 
Divine  Being  with  the  impotency  of  the  human. 
"It  is  our  imperfection,  that  we  cannot  give  our  at- 
tention to  more  than  one  object,  at  one  and  the  same 
instant  of  time ;  but  surely  it  would  elevate  our  every 
idea  of  the  perfections  of  God,  did  we  know,  that 
while  his  comprehensive  mind  could  grasp  the  whole 
amplitude  of  nature  to  the  very  outermost  of  its 
boundaries^  he  had  an  attentive  eye  fastened  on  the 
very  humblest  of  its  objects,  and  pondered  ever}-' 
thought  of  my  heart,  and  noticed  every  footstep  o'.'. 
my  goings,  and  treasured  up  in  his  rememberanct 
every  turn  and  every  movement  of  my  history."^  And 
as  this  would  be  the  most  glorious  conception  of 
God,   it  must   be  the   true  one,   for  as   John   Foster 

'  Chalmer's  Astronomical  Discourses. 


I  GO  naturalism;  op.,  the  denial 

remarks/  "to  say  that  we  can,  in  the  abstract,  con- 
ceive of  a  magnitude  of  intelligence  and  power  which 
would  constitute  the  Deity,  if  Tie  possessed  it^  a  more 
glorious  and  adorable  Being  than  he  actually  is,  could 
be  nothing  less  than  a  flagrant  impiety."  The  anthro- 
pomorphising  view  of  the  Almighty,  is  brought  out 
very  palpably  in  some  of  our  modern  books  of  science 
which  advocate  the  natural  development  hypothesis. 
The  author  of  the  "Vestiges"  speak  of  it  as  "  nothing 
less  than  a  mean  view  of  the  Great  Author,  to  sup- 
pose Him  obliged  to  come  in  on  frequent  occasions 
with  new  feats  or  special  interferences."  And  the 
question  is  asked,  "is  it  conceivable,  as  a  fitting 
mode  of  exercise  for  creative  intelligence,  that  it 
should  be  constantly  paying  a  special  attention  to  the 
creation  of  species?"'  Here,  the  Divine  Being  is 
assimilated  to  the  human.  He  is  stripped  of  the 
attributes  of  omnipresence  and  omniscience  which 
enter  into  the  glories  of  His  incomprehensible  cha- 
racter. This  a  damning  evidence  against  this  theory 
of  naturalism.  It  makes  God  like  to  corruptible 
man.  Whereas,  on  the  supernatural  theory,  while 
His  name  is  excellent  in  all  the  earth.  His  glory  is 
set  above  the  heavens. 

3.  The  theory  which  excludes  the  Divine  agency 
from  the  universe,  and  abandons  it  to  natural  laws, 
is  opposed  to  the  palpable  evidence  of  geology.  This 
science  has  established,  beyond  a  doubt,  not  only  that 
our   globe   has  repeatedly  undergone   great   changes 

'  Foster's  Contributions  to  the  Eclectic,--"  Reyiew  of  Chalmers." 
''  Vestiges,  pp.  165, 169,  5th  edition. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.        161 

previous  to  its  becoming  the  habitation  of  man,  but. 
that  during  these  changes  several  successive  creations 
of  animal  and  vegetable  life  have  taken  place.     The 
organic   remains   imbedded  in  strata,  that  had  been 
formed  ages  anterior  to  the  existence  of  the  human 
race,  (these  strata  being  separated  from  each  other  by 
considerable  periods  of  duration,)  furnish  evidence  of 
whole  groups  having  been  swept  away  by  some  violent 
agencies,    and   of    entirely   new   races    having    been 
called   into   being    to    supply   their    place.     Geology 
tells  us  that  the  temperature  of  the  globe  in  a  remote 
antiquity  was  such,  that  our  present  races  of  animals 
and  vegetables  could  not  then  have  existed,  and  that 
the  creatures  then  existing,  could  not  have  lived  now. 
This   being  the  case,   the  inference   is  obvious,   thai 
new  creations  of  animal  and  vegetable  life  must  have 
occurred,    between  whose  natures   and   the   changed 
earth  there  subsisted  a  nice  adaptation.     Now,  it  is 
for  the  production  of  these  new  races  that  we  demand 
the  interposition  of  God.     There  is  no  power  in  the 
laws  of  nature  to   produce  them.     "The  growth  of 
new  systems  out  of  old  ones,"  says  the  great  Newton, 
"  without  the  mediation  of  Divine  Power,  is  absurd." 
Man,  compared  with  the  ages  that  elapsed  before  his 
creation,  is  but   a  very  recent   being  on   the    earth. 
For  the  production  of  a  creature  so  distinct  in  his 
intellectual  and  moral  qualities  from  the  whole  animal 
creation,    a  new  exertion   of  the  creative  power  of 
God  was  necessary.     Theories  of  spontaneous   gene- 
ration and  of  transmutation  of  the  species  have  not 
been  wanting.     But  these   theories  have  never  risen 

11 


162  naturausm;  or  the  denial 

any  higher  than  vague  fancies.  The  records  of 
geology  furnish  no  indication  of  such  phenomena. 
And,  as  Cuvier  asks,  why,  if  such  transmutations 
have  occurred,  do  not  the  bowels  of  the  earth  pre- 
serve the  records  of  such  a  curious  genealogy  ?  In 
the  domain  of  fossil  geology,  we  discover  abundant 
remains  of  distinct  species,  but  not  a  single  specimen 
of  any  species  being  in  a  state  of  transmutation  has 
been  met  with.  The  faith  of  the  most  distinguished 
geologists  and  anatomists  is  very  unanimous  on  this 
point.  The  first  proposition  which  Cuvier  establishes 
is,  that  the  species  now  living  are  not  mere  varieties 
of  the  species  which  are  lost,  "For  myself,"  says 
Agassiz,  "  I  have  the  conviction  that  species  have 
been  created  successively  at  distinct  intervals,  and 
that  the  -changes  which  they  have  undergone  during  a 
geological  epoch  are  very  secondary,  relating  only 
to  their  fecundity,  and  to  migrations  dependent  on 
epochal  influences."^  Lyell  gives  it  as  the  result  of 
a  careful  inquiry,  "  that  species  have  a  real  existence 
in  nature,  and  that  each  was  endowed  at  the  time  of 
its  creation  with  the  attributes  and  organs  by  which 
it  is  now  distinguished."-  "Everything,"  says  Sir 
Charles  Bell,  in  his  "  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  "  de- 
clares the  species  to  have  its  origin  in  a  distinct 
creation,  not  in  a  gradual  variation  from  some  original 
type ;  and  any  other  hypothesis  than  that  of  a  new 
creation  of  animals  suited  to  the  successive  changes 
in  the  inorganic  matter  of  the  globe — the  condition 

'  Dr.  Harris'  Pre-Adamite  Earth,  p.  287. 

^  Lyell's  PriQciples  of  Geology,  vol.  ii.,  p.  G5,  1st  edition. 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT,  163 

of  the  water,  atmosphere,  and  temperature — brings 
with  it  only  an  accumulation  of  difficulties."  On 
the  strength  of  all  this  high  testimony,  we  may  say 
with  Dr.  Chalmers,  that  it  places  our  argument  for 
the  interposal  of  God,  on  firm  vantage  ground,  to 
assert,  that  were  all  the  arrangements  of  our  existing 
natural  history  destroyed,  all  the  known  forces  of  our 
existing  natural  philosophy  could  not  replace  them. 
The  records  of  geology  are  thus  shown  to  be  the 
records  of  a  special  Providence.  And,  as  Conybeare 
justly  remarks,  the  geological  evidence  strikes  at  once 
at  the  root  of  every  sceptical  argument  against  mira- 
cles. If  God  has  specially  interposed  in  the  ages 
preceding  the  present  state  of  the  globe,  is  there  not 
a  strong  presumption  that  he  has  done  so  at  the 
most  wondrous  epoch  of  our  earth's  history — the 
introduction  of  Christianity ;  and  that,  at  some  future 
period,  he  will  again  interpose  for  the  accomplishment 
of  his  high  purposes.  Geology  convicts  naturalism 
of  falsehood,  while  it  warrants  us  to  credit  the  mira- 
cles and  revelations  of  the  Bible,  if  authenticated  on 
the  broad  ground  of  evidence.  The  Almighty  had 
not  withdrawn  from  the  world  in  the  remote  past, 
but  presided  over  it  as  sovereign  Lord,  and,  on  befit- 
ting occasions,  made  bare  his  arm  in  new  exertions  of 
creative  energy.  And  why  should  it  be  questioned 
that  he  is  there  still,  touching  all  the  springs  of  life 
and  motion,  and  upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of 
his  power  ? 

4.    Christianity  and   its   effects   are  phenomena  for 
which   naturalism    assigns    no   adequate   cause.      The 


164  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

theory  of  Strauss  that  the  church  made  its  founder  in 
the  natural  progress  of  events,  and  out  of  the  Messianic 
conceptions  existing  at  the  birth  of  Jesus, — that  the 
grand  miracles  which  signalized  his  history  were 
merely  a  kind  of  mythological  clothing  gradually 
thrown  around  him  by  his  followers  in  order  to  exalt 
their  hero,  is  a  more  idle  fancy  than  any  of  the  hypo- 
theses of  spontaneous  generation  and  transmutation 
of  the  species,  which  have  been  formed  to  account 
for  the  origin  of  our  races.  Geology  gives  not  a  more 
decided  negative  to  the  one  theory  than  historical 
facts  do  to  the  other.  It  is  a  foolhardy  attempt  to 
account  for  a  creation  without  the  intervention  of  the 
Great  Creator.  Christianity  is  a  new  creation,  and 
naturalism  ascribes  it  to  a  cause  which  did  not  at  the 
time  exist,  and  which,  if  it  had  existed,  would  have 
been  altogether  inadequate  to  the  effect.  The  con- 
ceptions of  the  Hebrew  nation  respecting  the  mission, 
character,  and  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  were  far 
from  being  realized  in  him  who  claimed  to  be  the 
Son  of  the  Highest  and  the  Christ  of  promise. 
Indeed,  the  notions  of  his  immediate  disciples,  up  to 
the  time  of  his  leaving  the  world,  were  ever  coming 
into  conflict  with  his  sayings  and  doings;  and  their 
attachment  to  his  cause,  notwithstanding,  can  only 
be  accounted  for  on  the  belief  of  an  evidence  and 
agency  that  lay  beyond  the  influence  of  these  con- 
ceptions. The  character  of  Christ,  it  has  generally 
been  admitted  even  by  infidels,  is  altogether  unique  ; 
and  some  of  them  have  granted  that  the  invention  of 
such  a  noble  character  by  the  first  disciples  would 


OF    THE    DIVINE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  165 

have  been  a  greater  miracle  than  any  that  is  recorded. 
It  is  magnifying  the  effect  much  above  the  cause, 
it  is  investing  the  creation  with  a  glory  that  did  not 
belong  to  the  creator,  to  assert,  that  a  character  so 
absolutely  complete  in  all  the  elements  of  moral 
grandeur,  and  standing  alone  in  its  majesty  on  the 
pages  of  history,  originated  in  Jewish  conceptions 
thrown  around  the  skeleton  of  an  historic  reality. 
"  The  author  of  a  new  creation,"  remarks  D'Aubigne,^ 
"  must  not  himself  come  of  the  old  creation  which  he 
is  to  change.  The  regenerator  of  the  human  race 
must  not  himself  be  a  polluted  member  of  the  cor- 
rupt body  which  he  is  going  to  purify.  He  who 
comes  to  bring  a  divine  life  into  the  world  must 
himself  emanate  from  that  life  and  possess  it  in  its 
fulness ;  for  how  otherwise  can  he  communicate  it  ? 
The  first  man  of  the  new  creation  must  issue  from 
the  hand  of  God,  as  did  the  first  man  of  the  old 
creation."  There  are  two  stubborn  things  which  the 
theory  of  Strauss  cannot  solve.  The  first  is,  why,  if 
Christ  answered  to  the  conceptions  of  the  Jews,  was 
he  persecuted  by  them,  and  the  more  in  proportion  as 
he  manifested  himself  ?  The  second  is,  why,  after 
his  death,  the  death,  according  to  them,  of  an  im- 
postor and  blasphemer,  was  he  received  by  so  many 
thousands  of  the  people  who  had  formerly  rejected 
him  ?  To  ascribe  all  this  to  the  mere  natural  course 
of  things,  exclusive  of  a  Divine  interposal,  is,  if  pos- 
sible, more  absurd  than  to  account  for  the  creation  of 
the  universe  without  the  agency  of  the  GicmI  First 
'  D'Aubigae's  Discourses  and  Essays,  p.  336. 


166  NATURALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

Cause.  Whether  we  consider  the  age — an  age  of 
unbelief  and  derision — in  which  Christianity  as  a 
"myth"  is  said  to  have  arisen,  or  the  men  with  their 
strongly-rooted  adverse  prejudices,  to  whom  the  origin 
of  the  myths  is  assigned,  we  see  the  wild  unphiloso- 
phical  character  of  the  Straussian  theory.  It  accounts 
still  less  for  the  success  of  such  a  myth  as  Christianity 
a.mong  the  Gentiles,  opposed  as  it  was  at  all  points 
to  their  systems  of  superstition  and  philosophy.  "  In 
truth,"  as  Mr.  Henry  Rogers  remarks,^  "  nothing  less 
than  a  universal  lunacy  of  the  nations  will  account, 
under  such  circumstances,  for  its  reception  by  them."^ 


^  Appendix  to  Rogers'  Reason  and  Faith. 

-  "  German  theories,  though  they  have  brolien  down  in  quick 
succession  at  home,  have  been  imported  as  if  still  good,  and  have 
been  done  into  English  without  scruple."  To  this  remark  of  the 
author  of  "  The  Restoration  of  Belief,"  the  theory  of  Strauss  is  no 
exception.  Germany  is  getting  ashamed  of  it.  Yet  this  is  sub- 
stantially the  theory,  though  Gfrorer  is  the  great  authority  referred 
to,  that  Mr.  Mackay  has  reproduced  in  his  "  Progress  of  the  In- 
tellect," chap,  viii.,  vol.  2.  He  fathers  the  idea  of  a  superhuman 
Messiah  on  "  a  visionary  suggestion  "  that  rose  in  the  Hebrew  mind 
when  suffering  under  Persian  oppression — this  suggestion  or  wish 
"  filled  up  the  blank  of  political  disajipointment " — this  wish,  in  due 
time,  assumed  "  the  fixity  of  dogmatical  theory " — and  this  wish 
threw  around  "  the  Messianic  champion "  miraculous  glories  and 
Godlike  qualities.  In  other  words,  the  church  created  its  founder. 
Mr.  Mackay  has  no  doubt  of  it.  He  describes  the  process  as  coolly 
and  deliberately  as  if  it  were  a  piece  of  art,  the  fashioning  of 
which  he  had  witnessed  in  the  artist's  studio.  Like  some  of  his 
German  prototypes,  however,  he  overshoots  the  mark,  when  he  tells 
us,  in  the  face  of  historical  evidence  to  the  contrary,  that  the  record 
of  Christ's  life,  having  "  a  supernatural  coloring,"  was  given  to  the 
world  "  when  the  generation  of  his  contemporaries  was  extinct." 
He  make(5  Christ  to  have  been  an  ingenious  impostor,  the  evangelists 
to   have   been  very  clever  knaves,   and   the  sceptical  age   in  which 


OF    THE    DIVIXE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  167 

And  as  tlie  origin  of  Christianity  cannot  be  ac- 
counted for,  except  on  the  belief  of  a  supernatural 
interposition,  so  it  is  impossible  to  account  for  the 
mighty  effects  of  Christianity,  except  on  the  belief 
of  an  accompanying  supernatural  influence.  It  has 
been  soundly  argued  that  the  marked  contrast  between 
the  writings  of  the  apostles  and  those  of  the  most 
ancient  fathers,  can  only  be  explained  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  the  sacred  penmen  wrote  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Spirit  of  God.^  And  the  radical  and 
beneficent  change  which  the  progress  of  Christianity 
has  wrought  on  individuals  and  communities,  argues 
that  it  has  come  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
in  power.  Human  depravity  is  a  stubborn  fact  which 
no  theory  of  naturalism  can  get  rid -of.  Individuals 
and  nations  have  been  placed  in  the  most  favorable 
external  circumstances,  and  yet  their  depravity  has 
grown  with  their  growth,  and  strengthened  with  their 

Christianity  was  received  to  have  "been  an  age  of  great  simpletons. 
All  this  has  been  said  over  and  over  again  long  ago.  There  is  liere 
no  "  Progress  of  the  Intellect." 

^  "  The  interval  between  the  Scriptui-es  and  the  very  best  of  the 
Fathers  is  so  immense,  that  not  a  few  have  testified  that  it  forms  to 
them  the  most  convincing  proof  of  the  inspired  origin  of  the  former ; 
it  being,  in  their  judgment,  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  man — much 
less  a  number  of  men — could  have  composed  such  a  volume  as  the 
Bible,  in  an  age  in  which  their  immediate  successors,  many  of  them 
possessing  undoubted  genius  and  erudition,  and  having  the  advan- 
tage of  such  a  model,  could  fall  into  puerilities  so  gross,  and  errors 
so  monstrous.  For  ourselves,  we  could  sooner  believe  that  Jacob 
Bohmen  could  have  composed  the  '  Novum  Organum,'  or  Thomas 
Sternhold  the  '  Paradise  Lost.' '' — Rogers^  Essays  from  tJie  Edin- 
burgh Reviav,  vol  ii.,  pp.   123,  124. 


168  naturalism;  or,  the  denial 

strengtli.  The  power  of  mere  natural  influences  has 
failed  to  reach  the  depths  of  that  depravity,  and 
elevate  man  to  a  high  and  holy  character.  The 
Christian  revelation,  accompanied  by  that  Divine 
energy  which  originated  it,  has  been  brought  to  bear 
on  human  nature,  and  that  nature,  in  thousands  of 
instances,  it  has  thoroughly  renewed,  and  maintained 
in  its  moral  dignity  in  a  world  where  so  many  natural 
influences  tend  to  debase  it.  This  fact,  taken  along 
with  another,  viz.,  that  the  best  men  in  every  age 
have  been  firm  believers  in  the  doctrine  of  Divine 
influence,  goes  to  prove  that  Christianity  and  its 
benignant  deeds  are  effects  which  point  to  the  agency 
of  the  Great  Spirit  that  at  first  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters  and  garnished  the  world. 

5.  It  need  scarcely  be  remarked,  that  naturalism, 
whether  viewed  as  excluding  Divine  Providence  from 
the  government  of  the  spheres,  or  from  interposing 
in  the  concerns  of  men,  is  diametrically  opjposed  to  the 
religion  of  the  Bible.  The  constant  concurrence  of 
the  Divine  will  with  the  operation  of  secondary 
causes,  is  alike  the  doctrine  of  sound  reason  and 
scriptural  truth.  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and 
I  work,"  said  the  Great  Teacher, — an  expression 
which  seems  to  refer  to  the  conjunct  agency  of  the 
Father  and  Son  in  producing  the  Christian  miracles, 
and  the  works  of  Providence  in  general.  It  is  said 
of  Him  Avho  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  that  "  by 
him  all  things  consist,  and  that  he  upholdeth  all 
things  by  the  word  of  his  power."  Passages  like 
these,  with  which  the  Book  of  God  is  thickly  strewed, 


OF    THE    DIVIDE    PROVIDENTIAL    GOVERNMENT.  169 

show  that  any  attempt  to  remove  God  to  a  distance 
from  the  creation,  or  to  explode  the  idea  of  Providence, 
wars  with  the  record  of  revealed  truth.  The  Scrip- 
tures, as  we  have  seen,  assert  their  own  inspiration. 
And  their  testimony  is  clear  in  regard  to  the  necessity 
of  Divine  influence  to  regenerate  men.  This  is  a 
great  mystery,  who  then  can  believe  it  ?  Its  mys- 
teriousness  is  admitted  in  the  very  passage  that  asserts 
its  necessity.^  Strip  Christianity  of .  its  mysteries, 
and  you  strip  it  of  its  glory.  "  A  religion  without 
its  mysteries,"  says  Robert  Hall,  "is  like  a  temple 
without  its  God." 

But  you  cannot  get  rid  of  the  mysterious.  Nat- 
uralism banishes  the  Creator  to  a  distance  from  the 
creation,  resolves  everything  into  the  unaided  opera- 
tion of  established  laws,  and  thinks  that  the  mystery 
is  greatly  lessened.  But,  in  truth,  it  is  greatly  in- 
creased. The  stupendous  system  of  worlds  on  worlds 
moving  in  harmony  throughout  the  fields  of  space, 
without  the  ever-present  agency  of  Him  who  made 
them,  is  a  mystery  more  baffling  and  less  sublime 
than  the  same  system  viewed  as  directly  dependent 
on  the  presidency  and  power  of  God.  It  is  confess- 
edly mysterious  how  the  Divine  Spirit  works  on  the 
human  mind,  so  as  in  the  case  of  inspiration  to  allow 
free  intellectual  action,  and  in  the  case  of  regeneration 
not  to  infringe  on  moral  liberty.  But  so  it  is.  Scrip- 
ture attests  it,  and  the  subjects  of  Divine  influence 
in  either  case  have  been  conscious  of  it.  Naturalism 
guards  the  human  mind  and  human  concerns  from  such 

'  John,  iii.,  7,  8. 


170  NATURALISM. 

an  interposal,  and  thinks  tliat  it  lias  cleared  the  moral 
world  of  a  mystery.  But  it  is  not  so.  The  Bible, 
m  its  'grand  disclosures  and  robe  of  solitary  majesty, 
is  much  more  inexplicable  without  inspiration  than 
with  it.  And  how  moral  evil — that  most  insoluble 
of  all  mysteries — should  be  counteracted,  and  men 
rescued  from  its  power,  by  the  mere  play  of  natural 
hifluences,  is  assuredly  more  mysterious  and  unac- 
countable than  that  it  should  be  accomplished  by  the 
Spirit  of  God. 

In  fine,  naturalism,  viewed  in  all  its  bearings,  is 
most  unnatural.  It  has  a  universe  independent  of 
Ilim  who  created  it.  It  has  a  Christ,  a  Gospel,  and 
a  Church,  for  the  existence  of  which  no  higher  cause 
is  assigned  than  Jewish  conceptions  and  traditions. 
It  has  a  world  in  which  moral  evil  abounds,  and  de- 
praved human  hearts  exist,  for  overcoming  and  regen- 
erating which,  it  ignores  all  but  natural  influences. 
In  attempting  to  get  rid  of  mysteries  the  most  sublime 
and  ennobling,  it  falls  into  mysteries  far  more  per- 
plexing but  less  elevating.  Were  the  two  systems  to 
be  tested  by  the  attribute  of  mysteriousness,  we  would 
prefer  supernaturalism  with  its  mysteries  to  lational- 
ism  with  its  mysteries. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

THE   DENIAL    OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION,    OR 
SPIRITUALISM. 

Change  iu  the  enemy's  tactics — Rationalism  confessedly  beaten  on 
the  field  of  Biblical  criticism — Coleridge's  remark — The  doctrines 
of  redemption  granted,  by  rationalistic  theologians  and  philoso- 
phers, to  be  in  the  sacred  text — The  warfare  shifted  from  the 
ground  of  critical  interpretation  to  that  of  speculative  philosophy 
— Change  that  has  come  over  Unitarianism :  its  pretensions 
philosophical  rather  than  exegetical — The  "  School  of  Progress  " — 
Parker's  "  Discourse  on  Religion  " — Newman's  "  Phases  of  Faith  " 
Mackay's  "  Progress  of  the  Intellect " — Tendency  of  Mr.  Morell's 
speculations — Examination  of  the  moral  argument  against  the 
evangelical  doctrines — The  argument  stated — Refutation  of  it : 
unsupported  by  analogy — View  given  by  it  of  the  Divine  character 
is  one-sided  and  partial — Scripture  doctrine  of  depravity  accords 
with  actual  condition  of  man — Pardon  on  the  ground  of  an  atone- 
ment consistent  with  the  paternity  of  God — Reasonableness  of  the 
Scripture  doctrine  of  spiritual  regeneration — Sustained  by  an  appeal 
to  three  undeniable  facts — Charge  of  gloominess  against  the  doc- 
trines of  redemption  shown  to  be  unfounded — Quotations  from 
Jonathan  Edwards  and  Cowper. 

More  than  half  a  century  ago,  the  battle  raged  keenly 
between  the  defendants  and  assailants  of  the  New 
Testament  doctrines  on  the  field  of  Biblical  criticism. 
Neology  and  rationalism  in  Germany  brought  a  large 
though  unhallowed  amount  of  scholarship  to  the 
attempt  to  expel  from  the  sacred  volume  those  doc- 


172  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

trines  wliich  have  been  generally  regarded  as  its 
distinguishing  truths.  And  the  same  warfare  was 
prosecuted  with  much  vigor  in  our  own  country. 
The  cool  daring  of  the  French  atheistical  philosophy 
infected  men's  minds ;  and  individuals  who  professed 
to  interpret  the  Divine  Book,  set  about  demolishing 
one  text  after  another  that  favored  the  obnoxious 
articles  of  atonement  and  spiritual  regeneration,  as 
men  set  about  destroying  the  underwood  of  a  forest 
in  order  to  build  them  houses  on  the  clear  ground. 
Christendom  for  awhile  looked  on  appalled.  But  the 
work  of  destruction  was  soon  seen  not  to  be  the  work 
of  interpretation.  And,  after  the  alarm  and  heat  of 
the  first  onset  were  past,  the  attempt  to  expunge  the 
doctrines  of  the  incarnation,  atonement,  and  regener- 
ating influences  of  the  Spirit,  from  the  sacred  record, 
was  pronounced  a  more  complete  failure  than  the 
attempt  in  France  wholly  to  explode  the  idea  of  God 
from  the  heart  of  society.  On  the  ground  of  criticism, 
then,  the  dispute,  as  is  generally  admitted,  has  been 
decided  in  fixvor  of  the  great  doctrines  of  redemption. 
It  is  only  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Foxton,  late  of  Oxford, 
that  ventures  now  to  say  that  "  in  the  teaching  of 
Christ  himself,  there  is  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  the 
modern  evangelical  notion  of  an  atonement."^  It  is 
only  such  a  kindred  spirit  as  Mr.  Newman,  formerly 
fellow  of  Balliol,  whose  faith,  having  passed  through 
Eo  many  phases,  has  at  last  got  into  the  eclipse,  that 
"  can  testify  that  the  atonement  may  be  dropt  out  of 

*  Eoxtou's  Popular  Christianity,  p.  67. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    KEDEMPTION.  173 

Pauline  religion  without  affecting  its  quality."  ^  Such 
a  style  of  writing  as  this  is  only  to  be  rivalled  by  as- 
serting that  Hamlet  would  still  be  Hamlet  though  the 
part  of  Hamlet  were  omitted.  Nothing  but  a  system 
of  monstrously  forced  interpretation — so  forced  that,  if 
applied  to  extract  a  meaning  from  any  human  compo- 
sition, it  would  raise  the  shout  of  dishonesty — could 
expel  these  doctrines  from  Holy  Writ,  strip  the  text  of 
all  that  is  peculiar  to  the  Gospel,  reduce  its  theology  to 
a  mere  theism,  and  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  a  morality 
somewhat  elevated  above  the  best  of  the  heathen. 
The  mode  of  attack,  accordingly,  has  been  changed, 
the  ground  of  warfare  has  been  shifted.  But  there  is 
the  sacred  text  speaking  as  loudly  and  clearly  for  the 
atonement  and  the  doctrines  inseparably  connected 
with  it,  as  the  stars  in  their  courses  and  the  earth  with 
its  teeming  productions,  speak  for  the  existence  and 
providential  agency  of  God.  Coleridge  spoke  strongly, 
but  not  more  strongly  than  truly,  when  he  said  that 
"  Socinians  would  lose  all  character  for  honesty,  if 
they  were  to  explain  their  neighbor's  will  with  the 
same  latitude  of  interpretation,  which  they  do  the 
Scriptures."  "  I  told  them," — at  a  time  when  he  was 
far  ahead  of  them,  as  he  himself  informs  us — "  I  told 
them  plainly  and  openly,  that  it  was  clear  enough 
John  and  Paul  were  not  unitarians."" 

'  Newman's  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  103. 

'  Mr.  Theodore  Parker  thus  speaks  of  the  "  Old  School "  of  unita- 
rians, -which  he  has  outgrown,  though  in  a  very  different  way  from 
Coleridge  :  "  If  the  Athanasian  Creed,  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the 
English  church,  and  the  pope's  bull  '  Unigenitus,'   could  be  found 


174  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

Sucli  has  become  the  opmion  of  many  of  the  ra- 
tionalistic theologians,  and  philosophers  of  Germany, 
Christianity  with  them  may  be  either  true  or  false, 
but  they  are  constrained  to  admit  that  what  are 
usually  regarded  as  its  peculiar  doctrines,  are  con- 
tained in  the  sacred  volume.  Schelling  and  Hegel  * 
assume  the  existence  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity^ 
incarnation,  atonement,  the  lapsed  condition  of  mari; 
and  the  regeneration  of  the  soul  by  the  Holy  Spirit  ■ 
and  attempt,  in  the  true  rationalistic  mode,  to  deduce 
the  whole  from  philosophical  principles.  Their  Christ 
ology,  in  so  far  as  doctrinal  articles  are  concerned^ 
differs  but  little  from  the  evangelical  creed.  The 
Trinity  and  incarnation  may  be  explained  according 
to  a  theory  of  development  which  denudes  them  of 
their  surpassing  glory,  but  that  they  are  in  the  Bible 
is  not  denied.  The  idea  of  the  doctrine  of  the  fall 
and  of  redemption  by  Christ,  as  enunciated  in  their 
philosophy,  agrees  in  the  main  with  evangelical  prin- 
ciples, however  contrary  to  these  may  be  the  attempt 
to  deduce  them  on  principles  of  pure  science.  The 
doctrine  of  the  fall  is  explained  as  being  the  disunit- 
ing of  the  human  will  from  the  Divme  will.  And 
redemption  is  regarded  as  the  reunion  of  man's  will 
to  God.  The  rationalism  of  the  system  is  broad  and 
palpable.     But  it  is  something  m  advance  of  former 

in  a  Greek  manuscript,  and  be  proved  to  be  the  work  of  an  '  inspired ' 
apostle,  no  doubt  unitarianism  would  in  good  foitli  explain  all  three, 
and  deny  tliat  they  taught  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  or  the  fall  of 
man." — Discourse  on  Religion,  p.  357. 

'   Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  pp,  152,  190. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  175 

speculations,  tliat  the  Christian  doctrines  are  admitted 
to  be  in  the  text  of  the  Bible.  Such  intrepid  thinkers, 
the  very  spirit  of  whose  philosophy  is  destructive  of 
the  influence  of  the  Gospel,  virtually  declare  that  the 
attempt  to  extrude  the  evangelical  doctrines  from  the 
sacred  record  is  vain,  and  that,  be  they  true  or  false, 
they  must  be  recognized  as  occupying  a  prominent 
place  in  that  book  which  claims  to  be  from  heaven. 

Strauss,  who  is  a  true  Hegelian,  and  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  has  exploded  an  historical  gospel  for  the  sake 
of  a  philosophical  creed,  has  adopted  and  more  fully 
developed   the   same   view   of  the  leading   Christian 
doctrines.     He  denounces  as  strongly  the  old  ration- 
alistic method  of  interpretation  as  he  does  the  idea  of 
a  supernatural  intervention.      He  denies  the  histori- 
cal truth  of  the  New  Testament,   but  he  admits  the 
gospels  to  be  miraculous  in  their  texture,  and  that  the 
orthodox  tenets  are  contained  in  them.     His  principle 
is,  not  that  there  are  no  miracles  in  the  sacred  record, 
but  that  the  miracles  there  related  cannot  be  literally 
true,  for  miracles  are  an  impossibility.     His  principle 
is,   not  that  the  dogmas  of  the  Trinity,  incarnation, 
atonement,  the  fall  of  man,  and  his  regeneration  by 
the  Spirit,  have  no  place  in  the  Scripture  text,  but 
that  they  are  a  series  of  myths  or  philosophical  fig- 
ments, which  can  be  explained  on  the  principles  of 
Hegelianism.     Thus,  in  Germany,  the  attempt  to  in- 
terpret the  New  Testament  so  as  to  expunge  from  it 
the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  reduce  it  to 
little  more  than  a  mere  theism, — the  attempt  to  make 
John   and   Paul    Socinians, — has   been   for   the   most 


176  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

part  abandoned.  The  hostility  to  these  doctrines,  as 
principles  of  evangelism,  may  not  a  whit  be  abated, 
but  it  is  granted  that  they  are  in  the  sacred  canon. 
And  the  warfare  against  them  is,  to  a  considerable 
degree,  shifted  from  the  ground  of  critical  interpreta- 
tation  to  that  of  speculative  philosophy. 

It  has  been  said  that  Unitarianism  gravitates 
towards  rationalism.  And,  accordingly,  the  change 
that  has  come  over  German  rationalism,  has,  in  some 
measure,  influenced  English  and  American^  unita- 
rianism. It  is  assuming  something  like  the  shape  of 
a  religious  philosophy.  We  seldom  meet  it  in  the 
field  of  critical  exegesis,  and,  generally,  wherever  we  do 
meet  it,  the  weapons  of  the  new  philosophy  are  found 
in  its  hands.  It  was  from  the  sensational  philosophy 
that  the  unitarianism  of  the  last  century  took  its 
character.  In  the  time  of  Priestley  and  subsequently, 
it  was  deeply  stamped  with  his  own  fatalism  and  ma- 
terialism. And  everybody  knows  how  D'Alembert 
and  Voltaire  exulted  in  its  progress,  and  hailed  it  as 
an  ally  in  the  war  in  which  they  themselves  were 
engaged.       A   writer   in   the   Encyclopedie  remarks : 


"  It  is  probable/'  says  Dr.  Baird,,  "  that  unitarianism  iu  the 
United  States  will  disappear  in  process  of  time  very  much  as  it 
arose — gradually.  The  more  serious  will  return,  if  proper  measures 
be  pursued,  to  the  evangelical  churches — many  have  done  so  within 
the  last  twenty  years.  Those  who  have  embraced  the  transcenden- 
tal and  pantheistic  views  will  go  further  astray,  until  they  end  in 
downright  infidelity  and  deism.  Indeed,  that  is  their  present  posi- 
tion, so  far  as  concerns  their  opinions  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  the  Divine  nature." — The  Religious  Condition  of  Chris 
teiidom,  p.  605,  1852. 


OP   THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  177 

"  The  Unitarians  have  always  been  regarded  as  Chris- 
tian divines,  who  had  only  broken  and  torn  off  a  few 
branches  of  the  tree,  but  still  held  to  the  trunk; 
whereas  they  ought  to  have  been  looked  upon  as  a 
sect  of  philosophers,  who,  that  they  might  not  give 
too  rude  a  shock  to  the  religion  and  opinions,  true  or 
false,  which  were  then  received,  did  not  choose  openly 
to  avow  pure  deism,  and  reject  formally  and  unequi- 
vocally every  sort  of  revelation ;  but  who  were  con- 
tinually doing,  with  respect  to  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  what  Epicurus  did  with  respect  to  the 
gods;  admitting  them  verbally  but  destroying  them 
really.  In  fact,  the  Unitarians  received  only  so  much  of 
the  Scriptures  as  they  found  conformable  to  the  natural 
dictates  of  reason,  and  what  might  serve  the  purpose 
of  propping  up  and  confirming  the  systems  which 
they  had  embraced.  .  .  .  From  Socinianism  to  deism 
there  is  but  a  very  slight  shade,  and  a  single  step  to 
take :  and  the  Socinian  takes  it."^  And  not  only  the 
French  encyclopcedists,  but  the  German  rationalists 
looked  favorably  on  the  progress  of  Socinianism 
both  in  our  own  country  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  as  helping  them  in  their  attempt  to  extrude 
from  the  Gospels  the  miraculous  and  supernatural 
element.  But  the  reign  of  the  sensational  philosophy 
having  passed,  and  the  idealistic  philosophy  having 
gained  the  ascendant,  unitarianism,  at  least  among 
many  of  its  adherents,  has,  without  losing  any  of  its 
virulence  toward  evangelical  truth,  undergone  a  some- 


*  Dr.  Smith's  Scripture   Testimony,  vol.  i.,  pp.  135,  136. 
12 


l'&8  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

what  corresponding  change  in  its  character.  It  has,  in 
a  great  measure,  laid  aside  the  old  rationalistic  method 
of  attempting  by  forced  interpretations  to  thrust  out 
from  the  Bible  text  the  doctrines  of  redemption.  Its 
pretensions  are  philosophical  rather  than  exegetical. 
It  exhibits  Christianity  as  a  system  of  spiritual  phi- 
losophy founded  in  the  nature  of  things,  rather  than 
a  body  of  truth  derived  from  the  New  Testament 
fairly  and  literally  interpreted.  It  does  not  so  much 
deny  that  the  evangelical  doctrines  are  there,  as 
assume  that  if  they  were  they  could  not  be  literally 
true.  Accordingly,  the  more  modern  Unitarianism 
pays  less  deference  to  the  Bible,  viewed  as  a  revelation 
from  heaven,  than  even  did  the  old.  It  heeds  far  less 
what  saith  the  Scripture,  than  what  says  human  rea- 
son, or  this  and  that  oracle  of  the  speculative  schools. 
The  chiefs  of  this  system  of  religious  philosophy 
consequently  rid  themselves  of  many  of  the  embar- 
rassments which  their  predecessors  had  to  encounter. 
Holding  an  increasingly  lax  theory  of  inspiration,  or 
tossing  aside  the  idea  of  inspiration  altogether,  the 
doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  incarnation,  atonement,  and 
Spirit's  influences,  become  not  so  much  a  question  of 
scriptural  truth  as  of  philosophical  possibility.  The 
stubborn  texts  have  been  abandoned,  and  the  weapons 
of  transcendentalism  have  been  resorted  to.  Reason 
is  to  be  the  umpire  in  every  dispute.  There  are  laws 
of  the  mind,  say  the  disciples  of  this  school,  which  are 
exact  and  uniform.  These  are  absolute  tests  to 
man,  and  by  means  of  them  the  pretensions  of  every 
doctrine  must  be  decided.     "  What  is  of  use  to  ma^ 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  179 

lies  in  the  plane  of  his  own  consciousness,  neither 
above  it  nor  below  it."^  This  is  the  motto  of  the  class 
of  writers  referred  to.  Strauss  takes  up  the  position, 
"  miracles  are  impossible  ;"  and,  being  pinned  there  as 
firmly  as  a  man  in  the  stocks,  proceeds  to  examine  the 
miraculous  Gospel  history.  In  like  manner,  the  more 
liberal  Unitarians  fix  themselves  on  the  assumption 
that  the  Trinity  and  atonement  cannot  rest  on  evidence  ; 
and  then,  either  deny  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible,  or  finding  them  there,  discard  them  as  false 
because  not  according  with  their  own  sense  of  fitness. 

Socinianism,  then,  properly  so  called,  is  not  the 
goal  in  which  such  speculations  terminate.  Emerson, 
Parker,  Blanco  White,  F.  W.  Newman,  and  others, 
have  touched  at  this  point,  but  they  have  'passed 
beyond  it.  There  is  no  great  gulf,  indeed,  fixed 
between  them  and  their  former  associates.  It  is 
only  the  difference  between  men  who  seeing  clearly 
whither  the  road  leads  have  shot  along  it,  and  men 
halting  dubiously  at  an  intermediate  post  yet  looking 
onward  to  the  advanced  station.  The  "school  of 
progress,"  conscious  of  a  common  linking  principle 
between  itself  and  unitarianism  in  all  its  shades,  is 
calling  upon  it  to  come  on.  "  It  must  do  this,  or 
cease  to  represent  the  progress  of  man  in  theology.  Then 
some  other  will  take  its  office ;  stand  God-parent  to 
the  fair  child  it  has  brought  into  the  world,  but  dares 
not  own.""  Mr.  Parker,  in  America,  has  taken  the 
office ;  and  Mr.  F.  W.  Newman  aspires  to  it  in  England 

'  Parker's  Discourse  on  Religion,  p.  33.  ""  Ibid.,  p.  357. 


180  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

Our  amazement  is  tliat  such  persons  should  still  pro- 
fess a  vague  reverence  for  Christianity,  clothe  them- 
selves  so  frequently  in  the  language  of  its  cast-off 
Bible,  and  claim  the  privilege  of  being  accounted 
Christians.  "A  certain  man,"  we  read,  "went  down 
from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  and  fell  among  thieves, 
which  stripped  him  of  his  raiment,  and  wounded 
him,  and  departed,  leaving  him  half  dead."  Had 
such  depredators  turned  again  upon  their  victim  and 
professed  friendship,  it  would  have  been  somewhat 
parallel  to  the  conduct  of  many  in  our  day,  who, 
while  stabbing  Christianity  in  the  heart,  speak  of  it 
as  something  divine. 

Mr.  Parker,  as  a  member  of  the  Unitarian  body, 
grew  too  fast  for  the  body  itself,  and  has  been  de- 
tached from  it.  His  writings  are  highly  appreciated 
by  the  men  of  the  new  school,  and  they  seem  not 
unwilling  to  acknowledge  him  as  a  leader.  He  is  a. 
strenuous  advocate  of  what  he  calls  "absolute  reli- 
gion," or  those  simplest  elements  of  moral  and 
religious  truth  which  are  supposed  to  underlie  all 
theologies,  Pagan,  Jewish,  and  Christian.  His  talk 
on  this  point  is  not  unlike  the  rhapsodies  of  Emerson. 
"There  is  but  one  religion,"  he  tells  us,  "as  one 
ocean. "^  And  again,  "  there  can  be  but  one  kind  of 
religion,  as  there  can  be  but  one  kind  of  time  and 
space."  Of  course,  the  different  names  given  to  it 
indicate  "our  partial  conceptions,"  or  distinctions 
belonging  "to  the    thinker's  mind,   not    to    religion 

'  Parker's  Discourse  on  Religion,  p.  6. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  181 

itself.'"  Just  as  in  looking  over  the  world,  we  see 
only  one  race  of  men,  taking  tke  name  of  Britons  or 
Esquimaux,  &c.,  according  to  artificial  or  local  dis- 
tinctions; or  just  as  it  is  one  and  tlie  same  element 
of  water  though  parts  of  it  be  named  the  Pacific,  the 
Atlantic  or  the  German  Ocean.  Two  things  follow 
from  this  view  which  occupy  a  prominent  place  in 
Mr.  Parker's  writings.  The  one  is,  that  "there  is  no 
difference  but  of  words  between  revealed  religion  and 
natural  religion."'  All  religions  being  more  or  less 
true,  and  the  essence  of  Christianity  being  made 
independent  of  all  circumstances,  "all  those  extra- 
neous matters  relating  to  the  person,  character,  and 
authority  of  him  who  first  taught  it."^  The  other  is 
that  each  man  possesses  in  his  own  mind  the  power 
of  discerning  the  absolute  truth,  so  that  everything 
supposed  to  be  included  in  religion  is  to  be  tested  by 
this  intuitive  susceptibility  or  power.  "  Christianity 
is  dependent  on  no  outside  authority.  .  .  .  We  verify 
its  eternal  truth  in  our  soul."^  He  in  common  with 
some  of  our  own  men  of  progress,  resolves,  after  the 
example  of  Schleiermacher,  the  religious  element  in 
man  into  a  sense  of  dependence.  This  religious 
sentiment  or  sense  of  dependence,  supposed  to  exist 
at  the  root  of  all  religions,  is  made  everything ;  while 
the  character,  nature,  and  essence  of  the  object  on 
which  it  depends,  are  made  of  little  or  no  importance. 
The  objects  of  worship  are  "  accidental  circumstances 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  pp.  33,  34.  '  Ibid.,  p.  33. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  183.  .  *  Ibid.,  p.  209. 


182  SPIRITUALISM  ;    0«,    THE    DENIAL 

peculiar  to  the  age,  nation,  sect,  or  individual"  This 
religious  sentiment  is  the  "  eternal  element,"  all  else 
is  "mutable  and  fleeting."  The  problem  of  our 
times  which  he  deems  himself  commissioned  to  solve, 
is :  "  To  separate  religion  from  whatever  is  finite, — 
church,  book,  person, — and  let  it  rest  on  its  absolute 
truth. "^  Mr.  Parker  is  a  sort  of  Luther  in  his  own 
way  "Protestantism  delivers  us  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  church,  and  carries  us  back  to  the  Bible."*  Phi- 
losophical spiritualism  is  to  effect  the  next  Reforma- 
tion. "Our  theology,"  he  says,^  "has  two  great  idols 
• — the  Bible  and  Christ."  And  Mr.  Parker  is  the 
iconoclast  who  would  break  them  in  pieces.  It  is, 
after  all,  however,  but  the  exchange  of  one  infallibility 
for  another — an  infallible  Bible  for  an  infallible  Self 
— the  outward  for  the  inward  oracle.  There  is  an 
idol  still. 

We  meet  with  strange  reasoning  and  a  confounding 
of  things  in  "A  Discourse  of  Matters  pertaining  to 
Religion."  Thus,  in  order  to  cut  away  the  external 
evidences,  he  argues,  that  if  it  could  be  shown  that 
Christianity  rested  on  miracles,  it  would  prove  nothing 
in  its  favor,  because  other  religions  appeal  to  the 
same  authority:  which  is  something  like  saying  that 
because  there  is  a  great  deal  of  counterfeit  coin  in 
the  world  there  can  be  no  genuine,  or  because  there 
are  multitudes  of  knaves  there  can  be  no  true  men. 
It  is  overlooked  that  Christ  has  "done  the  works 
that  none  other  man  did,"  that  his  miracles,  in  their 
simplicity  and  sublimity,  in  their  power  and  benevo- 
'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  372.     =  Ibid..  ^.  364.     =  Ibid.,  3G9 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTIOX.  183 

lence,  stand  apart  from  and  in  contrast  to  all  the 
pretended  miracles  alleged  in  support  of  false  religions. 
The  character  of  Jesus  is  a  link  in  the  chain  of  proof, 
and,  in  order  to  rend  it  asunder,  it  is  sophistically 
argued,^  that  as  the  truth  of  a  demonstration  in  Euclid 
is  independent  of  Euclid's  character,  so  what  is  true 
in  Christianity  is  independent  of  the  character  of 
Christ.  "  If  it  depends  on  Jesus,  it  is  not  eternally 
true  ...  if  not  eternally  true,  it  is  no  truth  at  all.  .  .  . 
Personal  authority  adds  nothing  to  a  mathematical 
demonstration."  Now,  in  the  first  place,  we  protest 
against  the  infidel  assumption  that  Christianity  rests 
exclusively  on  this  or  that  thing  which  forms  only  a 
part  of  the  whole  ground  of  evidence.^  And,  then, 
secondly,  we  can  conceive   nothing  more   unphiloso- 


*  Parker's  Discourse,  pp.  181,  198. 
Our  opponents,  with  great  unfairness,  charge  us  with  resorting 
to  a  sophism  when  we  hold  that  the  external  and  internal  evidenoea, 
the  miracles  and  the  doctrines  corroborate  each  other.  This  is  well 
met  by  trying  it  in  a  simple  case.  "  You  have  to  do  with  one  who 
offers  to  your  eye  his  credentials — his  diploma,  duly  signed  and 
sealed,  and  which  declare  him  to  be  a  Personage  of  the  highest  rank. 
All  seems  genuine  in  these  evidences.  At  the  same  time  the  style 
and  tone,  the  air  and  behavior,  of  this  Personage,  and  all  that  ha 
says,  and  what  he  informs  you  of,  and  the  instructions  he  gives  you, 
are  in  every  respect  consistent  with  his  pretensions,  as  set  forth  in 
the  Instrument  he  brings  with  him.  It  is  not,  then,  that  you  alter- 
nately believe  his  credentials  to  be  genuine,  because  his  deportment 
and  his  language  are  becoming  to  his  alleged  rank ;  and  then  that 
you  yield  to  the  impression  which  has  been  made  upon  your  feelings 
by  his  deportment,  because  you  have  admitted  the  credentials  to  bo 
true.  Your  belief  is  the  product  of  a  simultaneous  accordance  of  the 
two  species  of  proof:  it  is  a  combined  force  that  carries  conviction, 
not  a  succession  of  proofs  in  line." — T!ie  Restoration  of  Belief,  p,  103. 


184  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

phical  than  this  attempt  to  place  mathematical  and 
moral  truth,  in  point  of  evidence,  on  the  same  plane. 
Mathematical  truth  has  no  influence  on  moral  cha- 
racter; and  the  bad  or  good  life  of  a  mathematical 
teacher  does  not  affect  the  truth  of  his  demonstra- 
tions. But  the  character  of  one  who  claims  to  be  a 
teacher  sent  from  God,  enters  into  that  amount  of 
evidence  by  -which  his  message  is  substantiated. 
Common  sense  never  thinks  of  a  connection  between 
a  man's  life  and  the  truth  of  his  theorem,  but  it  does 
think  of  such  a  connection  between  moral  truth  and 
the  character  of  him  who  reveals  it.  The  Jews  felt 
the  force  of  this,  and  in  order  to  resist  his  doctrine, 
they  endeavored  to  fasten  upon  the  Great  Teacher 
the  charges  of  being  a  blasphemer  and  in  league  with 
Beelzebub.  Besides,  religious  doctrines  may  be  true 
without  being  eternal — such  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
incarnation.  And  a  doctrine  may  be  eternal  and  yet 
historical — such  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Mr. 
Parker  should  know  that  eternally  true  and  eternally 
known  are  quite  different  things.  It  is  a  similar 
fallacy,  and  adduced  for  the  same  end — ridding  the 
world  of  a  fixed  doctrinal  standard — which  is  involved 
in  the  assertion  that  "the  phenomena  of  religion — 
like  those  of  science  and  art — must  vary  from  land 
to  land,  and  age  to  age,  with  the  varying  civilization 
of  mankind."^  The  progress  of  physical  truth  no 
more  indicates  a  similar  progress  in  religious  truth, 
than  a  man's  bodily  growth  indicates  the  enlargement 
of  his  soul.     And  to  conclude  that,  as  we  have  out- 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  37. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    EEDEMPTION.  185 

grown  the  geology  of  a  past  age,  we  ought  to  outgrow 
its  religious  belief,  is  as  good  as  saying  that  a  people 
who  have  railways  and  huge  reflecting  telescopes, 
must  be  sounder  in  the  faith  than  those  who  ride 
upon  asses  and  never  have  resolved  the  nebulae  in 
Orion's  belt.  "It  may  be  shown,"  remarks  an  able 
reviewer,^  "that  while  what  is  merely  historical 
in  physics  may  be  of  small  value;  the  historical  in 
morals  and  in  religious  faith  may  embrace  all  the 
truth  of  that  nature  the  world  will  ever  need,  and 
greatly  more  than  the  world  would  ever  have  dis- 
covered had  it  been  left  to  itself" 

But  the  great  fallacy  in  this  theory  of  spiritualism 
— that  which  lies  at  the  very  core  of  the  system — 
consists  in  making  the  religious  principle  in  man  find 
its  proper  object,  in  the  same  way  that  the  senses — 
the  eye  or  the  ear — find  theirs.     Two  things  are  here 
confounded :  the  capacity  for  receiving  religious  truth 
and   the  capacity  of  unaided  reason   to  discover  it. 
"This  theory,"  says  Mr.  Parker,"  "teaches  that  there 
is  a  natural  supply  for  spiritual  as  well  as  for  corpo- 
real wants;  that  there  is  a  connection   between  God 
and  the  soul,  as  between  light  and  the  eye,  sound  and 
the  ear,  food  and  the  palate,  truth  and  the  intellect, 
beauty  and   the  imagination."     He  thus  cuts  off  the^ 
miraculous  provision.     And  then,  "  as  we  have  bodily 
senses  to  lay  hold  on  matter,  and  supply  bodily  wants, 
through  which  we  obtain,  naturally,  all  needed  ma- 
terial  things ;  so  we   have  spiritual   faculties   to   lay 

'  British  Quarterly,  No.  XXI. 
"  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  160. 


186  spiritualism;  or  the  denial 

hold  on  God,  and  supply  spiritual  wants;  through 
them  we  obtain  all  needed  spiritual  things."  He 
thus  excludes  the  supernatural  influence  which  opens 
the  heart  to  receive  the  miraculous  supply.  Here  is 
a  point  of  fact. — Do  men  obtain  peace  of  conscience 
and  rest  for  the  soul,  as  naturally  as  their  eyes  obtain 
light  or  their  palate  obtains  food?  Do  the  spiritual 
faculties  and  the  spiritual  objects  come  together  in 
the  merely  natural  way  here  represented  ?  We  trow 
not.  Universal  history,  and'  individual  history  dis- 
claim the  analogy.  "Each  animal,  in  its  natural 
state,  attains  its  legitimate  end,  reaches  perfection 
after  its  kind."^  Yes.  But  man  is  the  anomaly  here. 
He  fails  of  reaching  the  perfection  that  is  proper  to 
him.  It  is  easy  to  descant,  as  our  author  does,  on 
the  relation  of  supply  to  demand  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  and  on  the  sufficiency  of  instinct  in  the  ox 
and  the  sparrow.  But  to  conclude  that  because  the 
natural  circumstances  attending  them  are  perfect,  it 
must  be  so  in  the  case  of  man;  that  because  they 
obtain  rest  and  satisfaction  in  a  natural  and  not 
miraculous  supply,  by  a  natural  and  not  supernatural 
guide,  therefore  the  human  race  needs  no  miraculous 
provision  and  no  other  than  natural  guidance  ;  is  as 
consistent  with  flict  as  to  infer  that  since  the  fowls  of 
the  air  fly,  man  must  have  wings.  It  is  true  that  we 
find  a  race  of  men,  though  "  we  never  find  a  race  of 
animals,  destitute  of  what  is  most  needed  for  them, 
wandering   up   and   down,   seeking  rest  and   finding 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  13G. 


OP    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  187 

none." '  That  capacity  implies  the  object,  and  that 
there  are  supplies  to  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  man 
are  truths.  But  the  flict,  however  mysterious,  in 
reference  to  man,  is,  that  the  capacity  and  the  object 
do  not,  as  in  the  irrational  animals,  come  naturally 
together.  There  is  no  discrepancy  between  the  proper 
destiny  and  the  actual  condition  of  the  sparrow,  but 
there  is  much  between  the  proper  destiny  and  the 
actual  condition  of  man.  A  sense  of  guilt  is  a  real 
and  powerful  element  in  man's  religious  conscious- 
ness which  this  theory  of  spiritualism  ignores,  and  for 
which,  consequently,  it  makes  no  provision.  That 
sense  of  guilt  is  a  fact  in  the  natural  history  of  man, 
which  remains  in  spite  of  all  such  teaching,  and  to 
talk,  amid  this  felt  discordance  between  actual  con- 
dition and  proper  destiny,  of  throwing  man  upon 
himself  or  upon  the  religious  sentiment  at  the  bottom 
of  his  heart,  is  something  like  bidding  a  man  brood 
over  his  disease  when  he  feels  the  need  of  going 
out  after  a  remedy.  Mr.  Parker  tells  us  that  "  for 
the  religious  consciousness  of  man,  a  knowledge  of 
two  great  truths  is  indispensable ;  namely,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  existence  of  the  Infinite  God,  and  of 
the  duty  we  owe  to  Him."-  These,  of  course,  may 
be  known,  independently  of  all  revelation  and  super- 
natural influence,  by  intuition  and  reflection.  Now 
supposing  that  man  needed  no  more  than  this  knowl- 
edge, it  is  asked,  does  his  own  unaided  intuition 
furnish  it,  or  is  he  found  in  this  state  of  nature  dis- 
charging his  duty  ?  Let  the  world's  history,  actual 
'  Park3r's  Discourse,  p.  136.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  158 


188  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

observation,  and  personal  experience  answer.  Our 
question  is  answered  when' we  think  of  "many  a 
swarthy  Indian,  who  bowed  down  to  wood  and  stone 

many  a  grim-faced  Calmuck,  who  worshipped  the 

great  God  of  Storms — many  a  Grecian  peasant,  who 
did  homage  to  Phoebus- Apollo  when  the  sun  rose  or 
went  down  —  many  a  savage,  his  hands  smeared 
all  over  with  human  sacrifice,"  although  Mr.  Parker 
assures  us,  in  his  catholicity,  that  they  shall  sit 
down  with  Moses  and  Jesus  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  ^  But  much  more  than  this  knowledge  is 
wanting.  Men  who  have  it  are  wandering  up  and 
down  seeking  rest  and  finding  none ;  they  know  that 
the  Infinite  God  exists,  but  they  want  to  know  how 
He  can  pardon  guilt  and  justify  the  ungodly;  they 
know  their  duty,  but  there  is  the  want  of  inclination 
or  moral  power  to  act  up  to  it.  And, — amid  all  this 
fine  talk  about  the  light  of  nature,  world-wide  in- 
spiration, and  the  power  of  intuitive  sentiment, — the 
actual  condition  of  the  race,  without  the  external 
teaching  of  Christianity,  rises  up  in  dark  contrast, 
and  forces  from  us  the  exclamation,  Has  this  intuitive 
power  given  to  the  soul  its  proper  object,  as  instinct 
has  given  to  the  beast  and  bird  theirs  ? 

It  will  be  seen,  then,  what  is  the  attitude  taken  by 
this  system  of  spiritualism  towards  the  Christian 
revelation.  "  It  bows  to  no  idols,  neither  the  church, 
nor  the  Bible,  nor  yet  Jesus,  but  God  only.  ...  Its 
redeemer  is  within — its  salvation  within;    its  heaven 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  83. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  189 

and  its  oracle  of  God."^  The  intuitive  susceptibility 
or  power  of  the  mind  is  placed  on  the  judgment  seat, 
and  made  the  sovereign  determinator  of  what  is  truth 
or  the  "  absolute  religion."  The  Bible,  irrespective 
altogether  of  its  evidences,  is  stripped  of  its  authority 
as  the  law  and  the  testimony,  and  is  received  as 
a  help  only  in  the  degree  that  its  utterances  accord 
with  the  sentiment  of  the  mind.  The  claims  of 
Christianity  are  settled,  not  on  the  ground  of  its  grand 
divine  peculiarities,  but  in  proportion  as  its  statements 
are  found  to  contain  the  simple  unchanging  principles 
of  the  religion  called  absolute.  It  "  sponges  out  nine- 
tenths  of  the  whole  ;  or,  after  reducing  the  mass  of  it 
to  a  caput  mortuum  of  lies,  fiction,  and  superstitions, 
retains  only  a  few  drops  of  fact  and  doctrine, — so  few 
as  certainly  not  to  pay  for  the  expenses  of  the  critical 
distillation."  ~  Christianity,  or  what  is  generally  under- 
stood to  be  its  distinguishing  principles,  is,  of  course, 
well  blackened  and  grossly  misrepresented,  in  order 
to  insure  its  condemnation.  Spiritualism,  we  are 
told,  "  calls  God  father,  not  king ;"  whereas  popular 
Christianity  "  makes  God  dark  and  awful ;  a  judge,  not 
a  protector ;  a  king,  not  a  father ;  jealous,  selfish,  vin- 
dictive. He  is  the  Draco  of  the  universe  ;  the  author 
of  sin,  but  its  unforgiving  avenger."^  This  we  can 
characterize  only  as  a  great  untruth,  and,  we  cannot 
help  thinking,  that  Mr.  Parker  knew  it.  The  design 
is  to  array  man's  moral  nature  against  the  external 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  361. 

'  Rogers'  Essays  from  the  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  iL,  p.  330. 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  pp.  S42,  359. 


190  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

divine,  revelation,  and  to  represent  tlie  doctrines  of 
atonement  as  conflicting  with  the  imperishable  re- 
ligious sentiments  common  to  the  race.  But,  as  we 
shall  afterwards  show,  spiritualism  is  as  much  at  vari- 
ance with  analogy  in  calling  God  ftither  and  refusing 
to  call  him  also  king,  as  it  is  dishonest  in  making 
evangelism  call  Him  king  only  and  not  father  also, 

Mr.  Parker,  like  many  others,  would  shift  the  con- 
test from  the  field  of  the  external  evidences,  (by  affect- 
ing to  despise  them  as,  even  if  true,  of  no  value,)  to 
the  matter  of  Christianity  itself ;  the  intuitive  suscep- 
tibility or  power  of  the  mind  being  supreme  arbiter. 
We,  without  abating  a  jot  of  our  regard  for  these  evi- 
dences— ^being  more  and  more  disposed  to  tell  these 
towers  and  mark  these  bulwarks — are  willing  to  abide 
by  a  fair  trial  of  the  contents  of  the  revelation  itself 
It  is  part  of  the  disingenuousness  of  inhdelity,  to  repre- 
sent us  as  fixed  on  the  one  ground,  and  reluctant  to 
do  battle  on  the  other.  The  nature  of  the  doctrine 
must  be  taken  into  account,  as  well  as  the  external 
evidence  which  attests  it.  But  we  demur  to  making 
any  inward  power  of  depraved  man,  be  it  called  in- 
tuition or  religious  sentiment,  a  sufficient  guide  or 
test  in  such  a  question  as  this.  It  is  enough  that 
our  moral  nature,  in  its  clear  imperishable  utterances, 
be  not  overborne  or  brought  into  collision.  But  it  is 
not  entitled  to  demand  that  it  should  be  made  the 
revealer  of  truth,  or  that  an  external  revelation  should 
disclose  nothing  but  what  lies  within  the  range  of  our 
natural  faculties,  for  that  were  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  a  revelation  properly  so  called.     This,  however,  is 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  '  191 

the  high  claim  of  modern  spiritualism.  Common  sense 
refuses  to  yield  to  any  such  intolerable  dogmatism. 
It  is  inconsistent  with  our  dependent  condition  in 
this  world,  and  with  the  felt  wants  of  the  human 
spirit.  We  are  led  to  look  for  a  revelation  from  with- 
out, and  if  attested  by  sufficient  evidence,  if  its  docu- 
ments be  proved  genuine,  and  if  its  contents,  though 
above  the  power  of  our  moral  nature  to  discover,  be  in 
harmony  with  its  broad  principles  and  with  what  we 
otherwise  know  of  the  Divine  government,  nothing 
on  our  part  should  hinder  its  reception.  It  is  the  al- 
leged discordancy  between  the  two  that  runs  through- 
out the  whole  of  Mr.  Parker's  illogical  and  intolerant 
book,  and  which  is  the  sharp  sword  in  the  hands  of 
philosophical  spiritualism.  But,  let  us  hear  another 
chief  of  the  same  school,  before  we  turn  the  weapon. 

"  Modern  spiritualism  has  reason  to  be  deeply 
grateful  to  Mr.  Newman."  So  says  a  London  journaP 
that  numbers  among  its  contributors  men  of  like 
stamp.  He  seems  to  have  done  great  things  for 
them  whereof  they  are  glad.  His  recent  work, 
"  Phases  of  Faith ;  or.  Passages  from  the  History  of 
my  Creed,"  is  looked  upon  as  having  thrown  up  a 
highway  on  which  the  "  new  reformation  "  may  safely 
advance.  People,  in  certain  regions,  are  thankful  for 
what  in  other  places  would  be  counted  but  very  bad 
roads.  And  surely  the  pathways  of  spiritualism  must 
have  been  loose  and  insecure  that  it  needed  Mr. 
Newman  s  work  to  tread  on,  and  for  which  it  is  so 
grateful.     We  willingly  accord  to  this  book  the  praise 

'  The  Leader. 


192  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

of  a  simple  and  good  Englisli  style ;  but  we  deny  it 
the  merit  of  cleverly  sustaining  the  part  of  honesty 
which  it  assumes.  There  is  reason  to  suspect  that 
a  man  has  not  overmuch  of  this  virtue,  when,  at  the 
end  of  every  paragraph  in  his  speech,  he  is  making 
loud  professions  of  it.  Mr.  Newman  becomes  an 
unbeliever,  and  then  he  writes  a  book  to  tell  us  that 
he  could  not  help  it.  He  would  have  us  to  look  upon 
him,  in  passing  through  these  "phases,"  as  a  man 
whose  sympathies  were  mainly  in  favor  of  the  old 
doctrines,  but  who,  under  a  strong  sense  of  duty, 
had  to  sacrifice  them  and  suffer  loss.  And  these  pro- 
fessions, be  it  observed,  are  not  unfrequently  made 
after  grossly  perverting  Scripture,  or  misrepresenting 
the  evangelical  creed.  He  "  struggled  to  the  last,  to 
rest  on  the  practical  soundness  of  Paul's  eminently 
sober  understanding.  .  .  But  Paul  also  proved  a  broken 
reed."  ^  And  why  ?  Because,  in  his  treatment  of  the 
gift  of  tongues,  he  speaks,  according  to  Mr.  Newman, 
like  an  Irvingite ;  and  because  the  Christ  of  Paul's 
epistles  is  a  different  being  from  the  Christ  of  the 
evangelists !  Again,  he  tells  us  that  the  53d  chapter 
of  Isaiah  and  some  of  the  other  Messianic  prophecies 
"  were  the  very  last  link  of  his  chain  that  snapt." 
After  severe  tugging,  "  it  still  remained  strange  that 
there  should  be  coincidences  so  close  with  the  suffer- 
ings of  Jesus ;  but  he  reflected  that  he  had  no  proof 
that  the  narrative  had  not  been  strained  by  credulity.... 
And  herewith  (he  adds)  my  last  argument  in  favor 
of  views  for  which  I  once  would  have  laid  down  my 
•  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  177. 


OF    THE    BIBLE   REDEMPTION,  193 

life,  seemed  to  be  spent. "^  We  are  thus  to  judge  of 
the  way  in  which  he  has  made  such  mighty  sacri- 
fices. And  our  conclusion  is,  that  Mr.  Newman's 
statements  must  be  taken  with  some  qualification, 
when  he  assures  us  of  being  forced,  against  all  his 
prepossessions,,  to  yield  to  the  authority  of  Strauss; 
or,  of  being  thrown  every  now  and  then  into  great 
disquietude,  because  his  "moral  sentiment  and  the 
^Scripture  were  no  longer  in  full  harmony."^ 

The  impression  made  on  most  minds  in  reading 
the  "Phases,"  we  are  persuaded,  will  be  that  its 
author  never  was,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  expres- 
sion, a  Christian.  Indeed  his  ignorance  or  perversion 
of  Christian  doctrines  and  evidences  is  manifested  in 
almost  every  page.  He  divides  the  progress  of  his 
creed  into  a  number  of  periods.  In  the  first  period, 
or  what  he  calls  his  "youthful  creed,"  v/e  have  the 
picture  of  a  young  man  sent  to  Oxford  without  armor, 
and  wounded  by  all  the  little  fighters  that  surround 
him.  We  may  sympathize  with  his  detestation  of 
formalism  and  of  priestly  assumptions.  But  he  lacks 
judgment  to  discern  the  things  that  differ.  In  the 
second  period,  or  "strivings  after  a  more  Primitive 
Christianity,"  he  occupies  the  position  of  a  man  in 
open  conflict  with  other  men's  opinions,  and  yet  cha- 
grined that  they  do  not  hug  and  embrace  him.  He 
is  caught  and  tossed  about  by  every  wind.  He  throws 
aside  the  leading  Christian  doctrines  as  intellectual 
propositions  or  dogmas,  while  pretending  much  rever- 
ence for  Scripture.     In  the  third  period,  his  religion 

'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  197.  '  Ibid,  p.  81. 


194  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

has  assumed  the  shape  of  moral  sentiment,  ("  if  shape 
it  might  be  called  that  shape  had  none,")  which  is 
independent  of  our  belief  in  the  Bible.  The  inward 
power  of  judging  is  here  made  everything.  He  touches 
at  Unitarianism,  but  it  cannot  afford  him  "half  an 
hour's  resting  place.  "^  And  before  this  inward  power 
"whether  called  common  sense,  conscience,  or  the 
Spirit  of  God,"^  he  brings,  after  having  in  a  great 
measure  perverted  them,  the  doctrines  of  depravity 
and  the  fall,  election  and  future  punishment,  the 
atonement  and  divinity  of  Christ,  and  having  sur- 
rendered them,  indorses  them  "  Galvanism  Aban- 
doned." And  yet  he  would  have  us  believe  that  in 
all  the  workings  of  his  mind  about  these  doctrines, 
they  had  little  to  do  with  the  inward  exercises  of  his 
soul  towards  God.  "He  was  still  the  same,  immu- 
tably glorious:  not  one  feature  of  his  countenance 
had  altered  to  my  gaze  or  could  alter.  "^  Surely,  then 
a  dishonest  man  might  say,  after  his  work  of  plunder, 
what  has  this  to  do  with  my  integrity  ?  The  fourth 
period,  or  "the  religion  of  the  letter  renounced," 
represents  him  afloat  far  from  land.  He  lays  hold  of 
all  the  old  objections  to  the  Bible,  grounded  for  the 
most  part  on  such  things  as  wrong  dates  and  names, 
most  of  which  have  been  refuted  a  thousand  times. 
He  would  have  us  infer,  that  as  John  and  Paul  did 
not  understand  astronomy  so  well  as  Sir  W.  Herschell, 
that  as  their  science  as  men  might  be  at  fault,  so 
might  their  teaching  as  inspired  apostles.^     It  is  in 

•  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  101.  -  Ibid,  p.  82  '  Ibid.,  p.  lOi. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  121. 


OF   THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  195 

vain  to  tell  Mr.  Newman,  it  is  not  in  their  cha- 
racter as  men,  but  in  their  peculiar  character  as 
apostles,  that  we  claim  for  them  inspiration  and  in- 
fallibility;— that  as  they  were  not  comissioned  to 
teach  human  science,  they  might  have  been  wrong 
in  astronomy;  but  that,  as  they  were  commissioned 
and  inspired  to  teach  Christian  truth,  they  could  not 
have  been  wrong  in  theology.  He  has  here  reduced 
the  Bible  to  almost  nothing,  being  greatly  aided,  he 
confesses,^  by  some  German  divines,  especially  by  De 
Wette,  and  yet  he  professes  to  hold  by  Christianity. 
He  would  have  us  to  imagine  him  "  resting  under  an 
Indian  fig-tree,  which  is  supported  by  certain  grand 
stems,  but  also  lets  down  to  the  earth  many  small 
branches,  which  seem  to  the  eye  to  prop  the  tree,  but 
in  fact  are  supported  by  it.  If  they  were  cut  away, 
the  tree  would  not  be  less  strong.  So  neither  was 
the  tree  of  Christianity  weakened  by  the  loss  of  its 
apparent  props.  I  might  still  enjoy  its  shade,  and 
eat  of  its  fruits,  and  bless  the  hand  that  planted  it."" 
This  may  seem  beautiful,  but  it  is  not  true.  The 
tree,  in  so  far  as  Mr.  Newman  is  concerned,  has 
disappeared  with  all  its  props  and  stems.  And  that 
under  which  he  is  sitting  is  as  like  the  tree  of  Chris- 
tianity as  the  bramble  bush  is  like  the  oak.  In  re- 
nouncing the  letter  he  has  renounced  the  spirit. 
And  the  flagrancy  is,  after  having  openly  done  the 
deed,  to  vaunt  of  his  innocence.  In  the  fifth  period, 
or  "faith  at  second-hand  found  to  be  vain,"  he  has 
reached  the  position  that  miracles  cannot  be  admitted 

'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  138.         '  Ibid.  p.  143. 


196  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

as  evidence  of  moral  truth.  He  does  not  attempt  so 
mucli  to  deny  the  miracles  as  to  depreciate  them. 
The  assertion  on  which  he  lays  stress  is,  "that 
miraculous  phenomena  will  never  prove  the  good- 
ness and  veracity  of  God,  if  we  do  not  know  these 
qualities  in  Him  without  miracle."^  Granted:  but 
this  does  not  preclude  miracle  attesting  a  special 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  goodness.  That  God 
is  good  is  indeed  a  truth  "discernible  by  the  heart 
without  the  aid  of  miracle  ;"  but  that  He  would  mani- 
fest his  goodness  in  the  way  implied  in  the  Christian 
redemption  is  not  so  discernible.  And  though  such 
a  manifestation,  after  it  has  been  made,  may  answer 
the  yearnings  of  the  heart,  yet  the  want  of  special 
evidence  to  attest  the  special  and  extraordinary  inter- 
position is  felt.  Mr.  Newman  and  his  school  can 
never  make  good  the  proposition  that  moral  truth 
cannot  be  substantiated  by  miracles  of  sense.  Men 
are  so  constituted  as  to  associate  (unless  willfully 
blinded  by  prejudice)  the  truthfulness  of  the  moral 
teaching  with  the  undoubted  manifestation  of  mi- 
raculous power  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  And 
what  he  does  to  weaken  or  nullify  them,  is  to  repre- 
sent Jesus  as  "  solely  anxious  to  have  people  believe 
in  Him,  without  caring  on  what  grounds  they  be- 
lieved;"^ to  represent  the  logical  notions  of  the 
apostles  as  at  variance  with  ours,  and  to  speak  of  our 
moral  judgments  as  at  conflict  with  the  Gospel  and 
its  evidences.^  Did  he  never  read  the  Scripture,  how 
that  Christ,  resting  his  claims  on  his  miracles,  said, 
'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  157.         '  Ibid,  p.  146.         '  Ibid.,  p.  147. 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  197 

"The  works  that  I  do  in  my  Father's  name,  they 
bear  witness  of  me.  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my 
Father,  believe  me  not.  But  if  I  do,  though  ye  be- 
lieve not  me,  believe  the  works ;  that  ye  may  know 
and  believe,  that  the  Father  is  in  me  and  I  in  him  ? 
And  when  he  assumes,  that  because  the  astronomy  of 
Paul's  day  was  defective,  so  was  the  logic ;  or  asserts,^ 
that  because  we  cannot  cross-examine  the  apostles, 
we  have  no  means  of  assuring  ourselves  that  they 
held  correct  principles  of  evidence,  we  tell  him  that 
though  men  may  have  different  data  in  different  ages, 
it  by  no  means  follows  that  they  must  have  different 
principles  of  reasoning ;  and  we  ask  if  he  is  prepared 
to  set  aside  all  but  contemporaneous  history,  to  place 
no  confidence  in  Thucydides  or  Josephus,  because  he 
cannot  interrogate  them?  And  then  he  assumes, 
what  never  has  happened,  and  never  can  happen,  the 
existence  of  a  miracle  that  would  authorize  him  to 
violate  his  moral  perceptions.  It  is,  we  repeat,  a  dis- 
ingenuous resort  of  infidelity,  to  separate  two  things 
which  God  hath  joined  together — the  character  of 
the  doctrine  and  the  character  of  the  external  evidence 
attesting  it — and  to  represent  us  as  resting  on  the 
latter,  exclusive  of  the  former,  whereas  the  faith  of 
the  Christian  has  regard  to  both.  In  the  sixth  phase 
of  Mr.  Newman's  faith,"  he  attempts  to  cut  up  his- 
torical religion  by  the  roots,  and  represents  religion 
as  a  state  of  sentiment  toward  God  that  is  independent 
of  any  outward  creed  whatever.  He  assumes  that 
because  we  contend  for  an  historical  foundation  to 
'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  148. 


198  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

Christianity,  we  make  it  a  mere  problem  of  literature ; 
and  then  argues,^  that  as  he  cannot  solve  literary- 
problems  concerning  distant  history,  and  as  they  lie 
beyond  "  the  religious  faculties  of  the  poor  and  half- 
educated,"  they  can  form  no  part  of  religion.  Here  is 
obviously  a  confounding  of  two  different  things :  the 
mind's  susceptibility  of  religious  sentiment,  and  the 
outward  law  and  testimony  which  appeals  authorita- 
tively to  that  susceptibility.  And,  to  use  the  words 
of  Dr.  Vaughan,"  we  ask,  "what  means  this  constant 
insinuation,  that  historical  evidence  must  be  wholly 
without  value  to  men.  not  learned  in  history  ?  Is  it 
not  manifestly  the  sentiment  of  our  nature — a  senti- 
ment so  common  and  rooted  as  to  seem  to  be  in- 
stinctive, that  there  is  a  credibility  in  historical  testi- 
mony, even  as  relating  to  the  mass  of  mankind,  suffi- 
cient to  bring  the  remote  past  into  a  certain  and 
living  connection  with  the  present.  Not  only  is  it  a 
fact,  that  the  least  learned  are  influenced  by  historical 
testimony  as  truly,  if  not  as  immediately,  as  the  most 
learned,  but  it  is  manifestly  a  law  of  Providence  that 
it  should  be  so ;  and  it  remains  to  be  shown  why  the 
law  which  embraces  testimony  to  this  effect  concern- 
ing Cromwell  or  Alfred,  should  not  embrace  testimony 
to  the  same  effect  concerning  Paul  and  Esaias."  Mr. 
Newman,  referring  we  presume  to  some  of  the  diffi- 
culties connected  with  this  subject,  says,'  "If  I  have 
been  seven  years  laboring  in  vain  to  solve  this  vast 
literary  problem,  it  is  an  extreme  absurdity  to  imagine 

'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  199.     ^  Dr.  Vaughan's  Letter  and  Spirit,  p.  64 
'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  199. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  199 

that  the  solving  of  it  is  imposed  by  God  on  the  whole 
human  race."  Now,  let  him  spend  seven  times  seven 
years  in  laboring  to  solve  some  of  the  problems  that  lie 
before  him  in  the  domain  of  natural  religion, — for  ex- 
ample, the  problem  of  moral  evil — and  what,  will  he 
make  out?  Nevertheless,  God  certainly  has  not  im- 
posed the  solution  upon  him  or  upon  any  of  the  race. 

But  Mr.  Newman's  drift  is  to  get  rid  of  an  histori- 
cal Christ.  He  insinuates  that  Jesus  was  far  from 
perfect — that  his  portrait  as  drawn  by  the  evangelists 
is  in  a  great  measure  imaginary — and,  if  asked  to 
specify  the  faults  in  that  matchless  character,  he  main- 
tains that  he  is  not  bound  to  do  so  because  this  were 
presuming  him  to  be  perfect  until  we  find  him  to  be 
imperfect.^  Yes.  If  a  man  is  generally  reported  to 
be  honest  and  claims  to  be  accounted  so,  you,  if  you 
deny  it,  are  obliged  to  establish  the  charge  of  dis- 
honesty. It  is  generally  acknowledged  that  every  mere 
man  is  imperfect — every  sane  mind  admits  it.  The 
onus  prohandi,  therefore,  lies  on  him  who  denies  it. 
So  with  the  man  who  denies  the  sinless  character  of 
Jesus.  We  meet  with  another  strange  thing  here. 
Mr.  Newman  represents"  it  as  moral  suicide  to  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  claims  of  Jesus  and  then  to  submit 
our  judgment  to  his  authority,  first  to  criticise  and 
then  to  cease  our  criticism,  first  to  exercise  free 
thought  and  then  to  abandon  it.  We  say,  that  to 
yield  the  mind  up  to  Christ,  after  having  been  con- 
vinced of  the  divinity  of  his  claims,  is  alone  worthy  of 

'  Phases  of  Faith,  pp.  210  212.  »  Ibid.,  p.  210. 


200  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

the  name  of  f^'ee  thought.  And  we  ask,  do  you  act 
thus  in  common  life — in  selecting  a  friend,  for  ex- 
ample ?  You  criticise  at  first.  Do  you  go  on  with 
your  criticism  ?  Mr,  Newman  would  have  us  believe 
that  it  is  with  pain  he  gives  up  "  sentiments  towards  an 
historical  person,  which  have  been  tenderly  cherished 
as  a  religion."^  But,  with  his  book  before  us,  we  refuse 
to  do  so. 

In  concluding  the  "  Phases,"  he  deems  himself 
warranted,  from  his  previous  "passages,"  to  consider 
it  as  a  settled  point  that  the  external  revelation  is  in 
collision  with  the  moral  sentiments.  We  have  here 
Spiritualism  vet^sus  Christianity.  "  If  the  spirit  within 
us,"  says  he,  "  and  the  Bible  (or  Church)  without  us 
are  at  variance,  we  must  either  follow  the  inward  and 
disregard  the  outward  law  ;  else  we  must  renounce  the 
inward  law  and  obey  the  outward^'  Matters  have  been 
brought  to  no  such  pass.  The  child  has  not  received 
"  discordant  commands "  from  his  father  and  mother, 
and  is  not  reduced  to  "  the  painful  necessity  of  disobey- 
ing one  in  order  to  obey  the  other."  Mr.  Newman, 
throughout  his  book,  has  given  such  representations 
of  the  atonement  and  the  doctrines  connected  with 
it,  not  to  speak  of  the  old  refuted  objections  which  he 
brings  against  many  parts  of  the  sacred  record,  as  to 
remind  us  of  the  coarseness  and  unfairness  of  the 
school  of  Paine.  He  has  first  perverted  the  outward 
law,  and  then  set  over  against  it  the  inward.  He  has 
exalted  the  one  to  the  judgment  seat,  and  then  brings 

'  Phases  of  Faitli,  p.  214.  '  Ibid,  pp.  227,  228. 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  201 

the  other  blackened  and  deformed  before  it,  to  be 
condemned.  And  what,  after  all,  does  he  mean  by 
"the  spirit  within  us,"  but  individual  feeling?  One 
man's  spiritualism  may  differ  widely  from  another 
man's.  Judging  from  some  recent  manifestations, 
the  inward  oracle  is  far  from  being  harmonious  in  its 
utterances.  "  The  authoritative  unity,  claimed  for 
it,  is  a  fiction.  Newman's  Personal  Spiritualism,  in 
place  of  being  a  centre  of  rest,  must  be  a  perpetual 
battle-field  between  the  claims  of  feeling  and  the 
claims  of  the  understanding."^  And  then  what  wilful 
blindness  to,  or  ungrateful  reading  of,  the  world's 
history,  to  speak  of  the  world's  religious  progress  as 
*iaving  been  intercepted  or  turned  back  by  the  claim  of 
UessiahsMjp  for  Jesus.  And  what  a  miserable  delusion 
CO  anticipate,  that  if  the  world  was  swept  clear  of 
intellectual  creeds  and  an  historical  Christianity,  and 
men  were  thrown  on  their  own  inward  sentiments, 
having  no  doctrine  in  common  but  the  vague  thing 
called  "  God's  sympathy  with  individual  man,"  the 
race  would  move  steadily  onward!"  But  for  the  his- 
torical Christianity  which  he  contemns,  Mr.  Newman's 
religion,  most  assuredly,  would  not  have  differed  in  the 
degree  that  it  does,  from  the  religion  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  philosophers.  The  "  progress  "  would  not  have 
been  quite  so  "  spiritual." 

Mr.  Mackay's  "  Progress  of  the  Intellect,"  though 
diff'ering  in  many  respects  from  Newman's  "Phases" 
and  Parker's  "  Discourse,"  is  a  production  of  the  same 

'  British  Quarterly,  No.  XXIII  "-  Phases  of  Faith,  pp.  225,  234 


202  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

school,  and  assumes  a  like  hostile  attitude  towards  tYie 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  redemption.  These  doc- 
trines, with  him,  are  "  a  petty  sanctuary  of  borrowed 
beliefs."  And  he  has  much  more  admiration  for  the 
times  when  men  saw  "serious  meaning  in  the  golden 
napkin  of  Rhampsinitus,  nay  even  in  the  gush  of 
water  from  the  jaw-bone  of  Samson's  ass,"  than  for 
our  a^e  with  its  doctrinal  articles  and  creeds.^  A 
floating,  ever-changing  sanctuary  of  faith,  is,  in  his 
view,  more  beautiful  than  a  fixed  one.  If  the  Bible 
would  only  submit  to  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  this 
shifting  cloud-land,  one  of  the  many  phases  of  our 
ideal  creations,  it  would,  like  the  other  "  playful 
mythi,"  be  attractive  to  Mr.  Mackay  and  his  school ; 
but  it  cannot  be  tolerated  in  its  claim  to  be  the  law 
and  the  testimony.  The  ancients,  with  their  mythical 
legends,  "were  as  the  eagle  intently  gazing  on  what 
he  wants  strength  to  reach  ;"  we,  with  our  Bible  creeds, 
"are  the  owls  blinking  at  the  first  daylight,  which, 
however,  we  are  slowly  learning  to  support."- 

Our  author  places  the  polytheistic  systems  of  the 
Greeks  and  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures  on 
the  same  plane;  both,  according  to  him,  being  the 
mind's  own  weaving,  the  results  of  investing  the  in- 
ward conceptions  with  an  outward  and  divine  authority. 
He  assumes  that  all  religion  is  a  form  of  symbolism  ; 
Christianity  and  material  idolatry  being  in  this  respect 
on  the  same  level,  only  the  one  is  deemed  a  higher 
product  of  the  intellectual  law  of  development  than 

'  The  Progress  of  tho  Intellect,  vol.  i.,  p.  vii. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  p.  xi". 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  203 

the  other.  Like  Mr.  Parker  and  his  fellow  disciples, 
he  holds  that  Christianity  has  two  aspects.  The  first 
is  "the  moral  conception,  which,  as  eternally  good 
and  true,  is  not  so  much  its  own  peculiarity  as  an 
essential  part  of  all  civilization."  And  secondly,  its 
"  special  dogmas  and  forms,"  such  as  the  atonement 
and  Spirit's  influences,  "which  making  up  its  acci- 
dental expression  or  clothing,  have  never  ceased  to 
accompany  its  development,  though  often  threatening 
to  obscure  or  supersede  the  vital  meaning  connected 
with  them."^  This  is  something  like  taking  a  man's 
soul  for  his  clothes,  or  depriving  him  of  reason  and 
intelligence  in  order  to  reduce  him  to  the  mere  ani- 
mal. Mr.  Mackay,  in  short,  like  his  fellow  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  is  a  resolute  disciple  of 
what  is  called  "  absolute  religion  " — "  an  eternal  never- 
failing  principle,"  of  which  all  religious  symbols  or 
dogmas  are  but  the  temporary  livery.-  By  this  eter- 
nal indestructible  principle,  we  are  to  understand  some 
such  vague  thing  as  a  sense  of  dependence,  or  a  feel- 
ing of  Divine  sympathy,  which,  as  an  ultimate  fact,  is 
supposed  to  underlie  all  the  religions  that  the  world 
ever  saw,' — a  sort  of  universal  soul  pervading  all  sys- 
tems. Pagan,  Hebrew,  and  Christian, — a  kind  of  pan- 
theistic element,  to  which  all  "  artificial  forms  of 
ritual  or  creed"  bear  the  same  temporary  relation  that 
the  leaves  of  the  forest,  or  the  grass  of  the  field,  bear 
to  the  principle  of  life  that  pervades  the  universe. 
Mr.  Mackay  would,  without  scruple,  indorse  Mr.  Par- 

'  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  ii.  p.  393. 
» Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  p.  17. 


204  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

ker's  statement — "there  is  but  one  religion,  as  one 
ocean;  thought  we  call  it  faith  in  our  church,  a?id 
infidelity  out  of  the  church."^  And  he  would  shake 
hands  with  brother  Newman  in  affirming — "religion 
was  created  by  the  inward  instincts  of  the  soul :  it  had 
afterwards  to  be  pruned  and  chastened  by  the  sceptical 
understanding."" 

The  pruning  and  chastening  process  goes  on ;  and 
Mr.  Mackay  is  resolved,  in  relation  to  Christianity,  that 
spare  the  knife  who  will,  he  will  not.  The  Bible 
doctrines  of  the  fall  of  man,  atonement  by  Christ, 
and  regeneration  through  the  Spirit,  are,  according 
to  his  theory,  excrescences  threatening  to  obscure  or 
supersede  the  vital  element,  and  he  lops  them  off. 
The  work,  of  course,  required  no  little  daring,  and 
something  very  different  from  shamefacedness.  It 
did  not  consist  with  the  humility  professed  in  the 
first  sentence  of  his  preface.  And,  accordingly,  Mr. 
Mackay,  on  entering  the  temple,  instead  of  leaving 
his  shoes,  after  the  Eastern  manner,  at  the  door,  left 
his  humility.^  And  then  the  fall  and  the  atonement, 
not  denied  to  be  in  the  Bible,  are  dismissed  as  mere 
"tricks  of  fancy,"  " ancient  superstitions,"  "subjective 
facts  in  the  writer's  mind,"  in  short,  only  a  projection 
of  the  inward  consciousness  into  the  outward  world.'' 

Dr.  Strauss,  in  dealing  with  the  evangelical  histories, 
has  been  spoken  of  as  withor^t  an  equal  in  the  ml 
admirari  vein.     But  we  warrant   our   author,  in   his 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  G.  '  Newman's  Phases,  p.  232 

'  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  i.,  p.  18. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  396,  465,  466. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  205 

manner  of  treating  Jesus  and  Paul,  to  matcli  him. 
He  admits  that  there  existed  the  notion  of  atonement 
in  the  Hebrew  mind,  but  he  "  cannot  admit  the  atone- 
ment doctrine  to  have  been  authorized  by  Jesus  as 
part  of  his  religion."^  He  is  aware,  however,  that 
the  teaching  of  Christ  had  something  to  do  with  the 
doctrine,  and  that  the  evangelists  in  recording  his 
sayings  are  not  altogether  silent  in  reference  to  it. 
But  the  "foolishness"  cannot  be  tolerated,  the  "stum- 
bling-block" must  be  removed,  though  it  be  at  the 
expense  of  Christ's  character  and  the  credit  of  the 
sacred  record.  Jesus,  accordingly,  is  represented"  as 
having  eventually  been  influenced,  contrary  to  his 
original  intentions,  by  the  prevailing  idea  of  meri- 
torious suffering,  in  order  "  to  uphold  his  sinking 
cause."  "He  used  the  terms  and  symbols  of  his 
age."  These  the  disciples  applied  literally,  "  thereby 
creating  a  superstitious  mystery  never  deliberately 
contemplated  by  their  master."^  That  there  are 
"  distinct  announcements  by  Jesus  of  his  propitiatory 
death,"  recorded  in  the  gospels,  Mr.  Mackay  does  not 
venture  to  deny.  But  he  easily  disposes  of  them. 
Just  as  Mr.  Newman,  after  putting  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of  Isaiah  on  the  rack,  and  failing  to  extort  a 
confession  to  his  liking,  settled  the  matter  by  saying 
that  he  "  had  no  proof  that  the  narrative  had  not  been 
strained  by  credulity," — so  Mr.  Mackay  declares  that 
none  of  the  distinct  announcements  referred  to  "  can 


*  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  ii.,  p.  464. 
'  Ibid.,  ii.  p.  395.  '  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  464 


206  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE   DENIAL 

be  relied  on  as  authentic ;"  or,  lest  this  should  be 
going  too  far,  "  it  seems  needless  to  ascribe  to  them 
more  than  the  figurative  sense."  ^  Miracles  are  impos- 
sible, says  Strauss.  The  doctrine  of  atonement  is 
incredible,  says  Mackay.  And  nothing  remains  but 
to  falsify  the  record,  or  to  bring  myths  and  symbolism 
to  account  for  them. 

Mr.  Mackay  does  not  say,  with  Mr.  Newman,  that  the 
atonement  might  be  dropt  out  of  "Pauline  religion" 
without  affecting  its  quality ;  any  more  than  he  says, 
with  Mr.  Foxton,  that  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  there 
is  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  the  doctrine.  On  the 
contrary,  this  doctrine  is  made  an  essential  part  of 
the  "  Pauline  development" — a  development  very  dif- 
ferent indeed  from  the  scriptural  one  which  took  place 
in  the  minds  of  the  apostles  after  the  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  their  Lord.  Christianity,  according  to 
him,  had  now  shifted  its  ground.  "  The  Christianity 
of  Paul  differs  from  that  of  Jesus  as  an  imparted  in- 
fluence from  without  differs  from  moral  effort  from 
within."^  In  other  words,  Christ  is  represented  as,  on 
the  whole,  discouraging  the  idea  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment, though  using  its  symbolical  terms ;  and  pleading 
simply  for  amendment,  sincerity,  and  moral  purity. 
While  Paul  is  spoken  of  as  having  been  the  first  to 
make  the  necessity  of  atonement  felt  by  proving  the 
inefficacy  of  the  law  for  justification,  and  then  as 
having  supplied  it.^     Thus  it  is,   according  to   "  the 

•  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  394,  4G3. 
'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  391.  '  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  396. 


OF   THE    BIBLE   REDEMPTION.  207 

Progress  of  the  Intellect,"  that  "  the  Hebrew  Palla- 
dium" has  been  "inherited  by  Christians."^  The 
atonement  then,  even  in  the  estimation  of 'Mr.  Mackay, 
could  not  be  sponged  out  of  Paul's  religion  without 
affecting  its  quality.  He  scorns  it,  however,  as  an 
excrescence,  a  special  dogma  that  loads  and  obscures 
the  moral  conception  or  the  simple  element  called 
absolute  religion.  The  atonement,  which  in  Scrip- 
ture is  represented  as  the  brightest  manifestation  of 
God's  love  to  our  fallen  race,  and  which  has  ever  been 
regarded  as  such  by  the  Christian  world,  is  conse- 
quently made  hideous,  and  spoken  of,  after  the  Parker 
fashion,  as  "  practically  giving  to  Christianity,  a 
character,  which  though  it  have  an  ill  sound  it  would 
be  vain  as  well  as  dishonest  to  dissemble,  that  of  a 
religion  of  Moloch."  - 

Had  we  been  reviewing  Mr.  Mackay's  work  as  a 
whole,  we  would  have  felt  ourselves  called  upon  to 
show  the  untenableness  of  his  mythical  theory,  the 
baselessness  of  his  assumption  that  all  religion  is  and 
can  only  be  a  form  of  symbolism.  He  accounts  for 
the  origin  of  Christianity,  as  we  have  already  noticed, 
in  a  way  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Strauss.  His 
"Progress  of  the  Intellect"  is  just  the  reproduction 
among  us  of  what  has  had  its  day  elsewhere.  So 
that  the  answer  to  Strauss  is  substantially  the  answer 
to  be  given  to  his  notions  of  the  Messianic  develop- 
ment.^    But  it  is  only  with  what  bears  on  the  atone- 

'  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  ii.,  p.  465.    ^  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  46G. 

*  We  should  also  have  taken  Mr.  Mackay  to  task  in  regard  to  a 

considerable    number   of  his    Scripture   references.      It  was    truly 


208  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

ment  that  we  have  at  present  to  do.  And  here  his 
development  theory  is  at  fault.  History  is  opposed 
to  it.  And  it  is  only  by  the  most  gross  assumptions. 
that  the  conflicting  evidence  of  history  is  set  aside. 
Any  writer  who  should  deal  with  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures as  he  has  done,  could  not  be  expected  to  feel 
much  scruple  in  twisting  the  New  Testament  record. 
It  serves  his  theory  of  symbolism,  to  make  out  idolatry 
or  Moloch-worship  to  have  been  the  practice  of  the 
early  Hebrews.  The  ancient  Hebrew  God,  according 
to  him,  was  only  one  of  the  many  gods  of  the  nations, 
and  cannibalism  was  associated  with  the  rites  paid  to 
him  by  the  people.  The  sacred  record  is  at  open 
conflict  with  this,  the  fact  being  that  in  the  earliest 
Hebrew  writings  we  have  some  of  the  sublimest 
descriptions  of  the  glory  of  the  one  God  that  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Bible.  Mr.  Mackay  feels  this.  But, 
in  order  to  preserve  his  theory,  he  is  forced  to  come 
out  with  the  assertion   that   the  Bible  writers   have 


difficult  to  account  for  many  of  these  references,  or  to  see  how  they 
bore  out  his  statements,  till  we  reflected  that  he  had  beforehand 
warned  us  of  his  intention  to  be  guided  more  by  German  (neological) 
criticism  than  by  the  •  English  version  of  the  Bible.  For  example, 
it  serves  Mr.  Mackay's  theory,  to  maintain  that  Christ  "  was  uncon- 
scious of  his  own  mission "  till  he  was  baptized  of  John ;  and  for 
proof  he  refers  us  to  John  i.  26,  33 ;  vii.,  27.  Why  did  he  not 
tell  us  how  the  ignorance  of  the  Baptist  and  of  the  people  proved 
unconsciousness  on  the  part  of  Christ?  Again, — as  an  evidence 
that  the  "  ancient  Hebrew  God "  was  only  one  of  the  many  Gods, 
and  that  He  acknowledged  their  existence,  we  are  referred  to  Deut. 
xxxii.  17 — 21.  On  the  same  principle,  it  might  be  maintained  that 
missionaries  acknowledge  the  real  existence  of  the  gods  of  the  heathen 
and  are  jealous  of  them. — Vol.  ii.,  pp.  315,  416. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  209 

transferred  to  olden  times  improvements  of  newer 
date, — ancient  Molocli  practices  having  been  cleansed 
by  modern  white-wash,  and  then  impressed  with  the 
stamp  of  antiquity.^  And  if  we  ask  for  evidence  in 
support  of  this  "borrowed  belief,"  we  receive  no 
better  answer  than  that  it  must  have  been  so  because 
his  development  theory  requires  it.  Having  in  this 
way  made  out  a  Hebrew  development  from  mere 
nature-worship  up  through  polytheism  to  the  recog- 
nition of  a  personal  and  independent  God,  it  could 
not  be  difficult  for  him  to  make  out  a  Christian 
development  in  which  Christ  and  Paul  stand  at  anti- 
podes— a  development,  however,  according  to  his  own 
showing,  in  the  contrary  direction,  from  better  to 
worse. 

But  this  is  no  more  the  development  of  the  New 
Testament  than  the  other  is  of  the  Old.  There 
was  development  throughout  the  period  embraced  by 
the  New  Testament  record,  but  it  was  like  the 
morning  light  which  shineth  more  and  more  until 
the  perfect  day.  Men  must  presume  very  much 
upon  the  unreasoning  unbelief  or  intense  hatred  of 
our  age  in  regard  to  evangelical  religion,  who  can  say 
either  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  allusion  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  to  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment, or  that  he  on  the  whole  discouraged  the  idea 
of  it.  That  the  doctrine  is  not  so  fully  enunciated 
in  the  discourses  of  Christ  as  in  the  letters  of  his 
apostles  must  be  admitted.      But  this  is  just  what 

^  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  406 — 445. 

14 


210  SPIRITUALISM  ;     OR,    THE    DENIAL 

might  have  been  expected.  In  the  one  case,  the 
work  of  atonement  was  unfulfilled ;  in  the  other  case, 
it  was  finished  and  had  become  matter  of  history. 
Besides,  the  strain  of  Christ^s  teaching  pointed  to 
the  time  when  the  germs  of  truth  which  he  had 
thrown  out  among  his  disciples  would  be  fully  un- 
folded, when,  under  an  increased  effulgence  from  on 
high,  they  should  see  the  truth  enshrined  in  his 
sayings  which  their  prejudices  prevented  them  from 
now  doing.  The  atonement  was  embraced  in  Christ's 
teaching.  What  can  be  more  explicit  than  his  own 
words — words  which  are  felt  to  be  a  difficulty  even 
by  Mr.  Mackay — "  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life 
a  ransom  for  many."  The  "  Pauline  development " 
was  not  different  from  this,  nor  anything  added  to 
this,  but  it  was  this  very  truth  more  fully  unfolded, 
and  made,  as  it  was  designed  to  be,  the  grand  central 
fact  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  The  progress  of  the 
New  Testament  was  no  more  "  the  Progress  of  the 
Intellect "  than  was  the  progress  of  the  ancient  He- 
brews. And  Mr,  Mackay  fails  in  giving  us  anything 
more  than  assumption  for  his  bold  denial  that  the 
doctrine  of  Paul's  epistles  is  countenanced  by  the 
prophets  and  the  Great  Teacher,  as  completely  as  he 
does  in  finding  a  basement  for  his  assertions  that 
idolatry  was  the  established  religion  in  Israel  up  to 
the  reign  of  Josiah — that  the  prophets  then,  in  adapt- 
ation to  the  wants  of  the  age,  remodelled  the  system, 
made  Jehovah,  who  had  hitherto  been  only  one  among 
the  many  Gods,  now  the  Universal  Power,  and  then 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  211 

represented  this  better  religion  as  the  religion  of 
Moses  and  the  early  Hebrews.  We  are  constrained 
to  say,  that  Mr.  Mackay,  in  thus  dealing  with  history, 
is  guilty  of  the  very  deception  which  he  would  charge 
upon  the  "holy  men  of  God,"  and  our  wonder  is  how 
he  can  attempt  to  palm  it  upon  the  world.  But  the 
atonement  must  be  got  rid  of  The  Gospel  doctrines 
must  be  deprived  of  their  historical  basis.  And,  since 
the  attempt  to  expel  them  from  the  sacred  page  has 
confessedly  failed,  nothing  remains  but  to  resolve 
them  into  the  conceptions  of  a  past  age,  to  bring 
them  before  the  chancery  of  the  mind's  own  decisions, 
and  to  dismiss  them  as  unfit  for  this  stage  in  "the 
Progress  of  the  Intellect." 

In  noticing  Mr.  Morell  in  this  connection,  we 
wish  to  be  understood  as  indicating  the  tendency  of 
his  speculations  on  religion  rather  than  their  actual 
results.  Wide  indeed  is  the  difference  between  the 
spirit  in  which  he  treats  of  such  matters,  and  that  of 
Messrs.  Parker,  Newman,  and  Mackay.  And  yet  the 
"  School  of  Progress,"  as  if  conscious  of  some  links 
of  sympathy  between  him  and  them,  regard  him  as 
advancing  on  the  same  path,  only  keeping  a  little 
behind.  He,  in  common  with  them,  resolves  re- 
ligion into  a  peculiar  mode  of  feeling.  And  though 
not,  like  them,  seeking  utterly  to  demolish  the  ob- 
jective element,  he  reduces  it  to  comparatively  little 
value.  The  subjective  or  intuitional  consciousness 
has  in  his  speculations  a  province  assigned  to  it  that 
can  scarcely  consist  with  the  claim  of  Scripture  to  bo 
accounted  the  law  and  the  testimony.     It  is  not  what 


212  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

history  has  attested  to  be  authentic  that  we  are 
to  receive,  but  what  we  feel  to  be  morally  and  re- 
ligiously true.  "  The  Philosophy  of  Religion"  is  but 
a  form  of  spiritualism. 

Mr.  Morell  attaches  much  importance  to  the  philo- 
sophical groundwork  that  he  has  laid  in  the  first  two 
chapters  of  his  book.  And  it  is  found  to  influence  all 
his  subsequent  speculations  on  the  subjective  nature 
of  religion.  Into  a  minute  examination  of  that 
groundwork,  it  would  be  out  of  place  for  us  here  to 
enter.  With  much  of  it  we  find  no  fault.  But  the 
broadly  prominent  principle  that  runs  throughout  it, 
is,  in  our  apprehension,  unsound  and  mischievous. 
We  refer  to  his  development  of  the  "principal  points 
of  distinction  between  our  logical  and  intuitional 
faculties"^ — a  distinction,  as  he  says,  of  vital  import- 
ance, and  which  he  carries  along  with  him  when 
arguing  on  the  relation  of  philosophy  to  religion.  He 
says,^  "there  is  one  state  of  our  intellectual  con- 
sciousness by  virtue  of  which  we  define  terms,  form 
propositions,  construct  reasonings,  and  perform  the 
whole  office  that  we  usually  attribute  to  a  mind  that 
acts  logically ;  but  there  is  also  another  state  of  our 
intellectual  consciousness,  in  which  the  material  of 
truth  comes  to  us  as  though  by  a  rational  instinct — a 
mental  sensibility — an  intuitive  power — a  'communis 
sensus,'  traceable  over  the  whole  surface  of  civilized 
humanity."  These  two  classes  of  phenomena  are  de- 
nominated the  logical  and  the  intuitional  consciousness. 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p,  33. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  213 

That  there  is  a  distinction  between  these  two  states 
of  consciousness — a  distinction  recognised  before  the 
times  of  Mr.  Morell — we  readily  admit.  But  we 
demur  to  the  way  in  which  he  disparts  the  one  from 
the  other,  exalting  the  power  of  intuition  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  understanding,  and  assigning  it  an  inde- 
pendence and  efficiency  which  do  not  belong  to  it. 
"  With  regard  to  higher  truths  and  laws,"  he  tells  us, 
"the  understanding  furnishes  merely  the  subjective 
forms,  in. which  they  may  be  logically  stated,  while 
intuition  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  actual  matter, 
or  reality  of  truth  itself"^  We  open  our  eyes  and  we 
see  at  once  the  blue  heavens  and  the  green  earth. 
In  like  manner,  Mr.  Morell  would  have  us  to  believe, 
the  mind  by  its  simple  spontaneous  power  of  intuition 
looks  out,  "and  the  absolute  stands  before  us  in  all 
its  living  reality."  Now  we  maintain,  in  opposition 
to  this,  that  the  understanding  has  much  to  do  in 
enabling  us  to  reach  the  mount  of  vision,  and  that  it 
is  not  restricted  to  the  humble  function  of  giving  log- 
ical expression  to  the  supersensual  truth  we  gaze  upon 
there.  Mr.  Morell  would  kick  away  the  ladder  by 
which  he  had  been  helped  upward,  and  then  refuse  to 
admit  that  it  had  rendered  him  any  assistance.  "  It 
is  not  enough  for  our  author  to  say,  as  all  sensible 
men  have  ever  said,  that  our  knowledge  of  '  the  true^ 
the  heautiful^  and  the  good^  comes  to  us  in  part  from 
our  intuitions,  he  is  peremptory  in  asserting  that  it 
comes  to  us  onhj  from  that  source — a  doctrine  which 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  19. 


214  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

can  never  be  made  to  harmonize  with  anything  de- 
servmg  the  name  of  philosophy;  and  which  must 
prove  eminently  hostile  to  the  purity  of  religion."^" 

In  applying  this  philosophy  to  the  fundamental 
questions  involved  in  his  subject,  Mr.  Morell  very 
naturally  considers  in  the  first  place,  what  is  the 
peculiar  essence  of  religion?  He  here  treats  the 
matter  subjectively — not  as  a  system  of  truth  or  form 
of  doctrine,  but  simply  as  a  fact  or  phenomenon  in 
human  nature.  He  lays  down  the  position  "that 
there  are  just  three  great  and  fundamental  forms  of 
man's   inward  consciousness   expressed  by  the   terms 

'  British  Quarterly,  No.  XIX.,  p.  149. 

'  The  author  of  "  the  Eclipse  of  Faith," — a  work  that  carries 
very  destructive  fire  into  the  enemy's  camp — in  commenting  "  on  a 
prevailing  fallacy,"  thus  addresses  our  modern  "  spiritualists." — 
"  You  do  not  sufficiently  regard  man  as  a  complicated  unity  ; — you 
represent,  if  you  do  not  suppose,  the  several  capacities  of  his  nature 
— the  different  parts  of  it,  sensational,  emotional,  intellectual,  moral, 
spiritual, — as  set  off  from  one  another  by  a  sharper  boundary  line 
than  nature  acknowledges.  .  .  .  What  can  be  more  obvious 
than  that  whether  we  have  a  distinct  religious  faculty,  or  whether 
it  be  the  result  of  the  action  of  many  faculties,  the  functions  of  our 
•  spiritual'  nature  are  performed  by  the  instrumentality,  and  involve 
the  intervention  of  the  very  same  much-abused  fiiculties  which 
enable  us  to  perform  any  other  function  ?  .  .  Religious  truth^  like 
any  other  truth,  is  embraced  by  the  understanding — as  indeed  it 
would  be  a  queer  kind  of  truth  that  is  not ;  is  stated  in  propositions, 
yields  inferences,  is  adorned  by  eloquence,  is  illustrated  by  the 
imagination,  and  is  thus,  as  well  as  from  its  intrinsic  claims,  ren- 
dered powerful  over  the  emotions,  the  affections,  and  the  will.  .  . 
Hence  we  see  the  dependence  of  the  true  development  of  religion  on 
the  just  and  harmonious  action  of  all  our  faculties.  They  march  to- 
gether;  and  it  is  the  glorious  prerogative  of  true  religion  that  it 
makes  them  do  so." — The  Eclipse  of  Faith,  p.  305,  &c. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  215 

^'knowing,  ivilUng,  feeling y^     And,  in  determining  to 
whicli   of  these   generic   forms   of    consciousness   re- 
ligion belongs,  he,   of  course,  fixes  on  feeling.     The 
great  error  in  his  philosophy  in  parting  off  the  intui- 
tional  from   the   logical   consciousness,    has    here   its 
counterpart  in  the  separation  between  religious  knowl- 
edge and  religious  feeling.     It  is  not  enough  for  him 
to  say,  "  that  there  may  be  many  gradations  of  religious 
intensity  in  men,  whose  amount  of  knowledge  is  as 
nearly  as  possible  identical;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
that  there  may  be  about  an  equal  manifestation  of 
religious  intensity  where  the  degress  of -knowledge  are 
immensely  at  variance."     No   sane  mind  denies  this. 
But  he  concludes  that  "  religion  is  really  cradled  in 
some  phenomenon  lying  without  the  region  of  what  we 
may  term  intellectual  activity;"  and,  "that  although 
the  co-operation  of  knowledge   may  be  necessary  to 
the  perfection  of  our  religious  life,"  yet  it  does  neces- 
sarily  enter   into   the  "essential   germ"  of  religion." 
We  do  not  much  object  to  the  statement,  that  religion, 
subjectively  considered,  consists  in  the  feeling  of  de- 
pendence upon  God ;  but  we  deny  that  any  emotion 
worthy  of  the  name  of  religion  can  exist  without  some 
knowledge   of  divine   things.     Mr.    Morell  obviously 
felt   himself  entangled    here   by   his   philosophy,    for 
while  the  drift  of  the  chapter  is  to  assert  the  inde- 
pendence and  exclusive  importance  of  feeling  as  he 
had  done  that  of  the  intuitional  consciousness,  he  yet 
asserts  that  the  co-operation  of  knowledge  may,  "in  a 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  66.  '  Ibid.,  p.  69. 


216  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

subordinate  sense,"  be  necessary  to  the  very  existence 
of  our  religious  life.  If  tlie  scholastic  and  many  of 
the  rationalistic  theologians  made  too  much  of  the 
mere  form  of  knowing,  Mr.  Morell  assuredly  makes 
too  much  of  the  mere  form  of  feeling.  It  results, 
as  we  have  seen  -in  such  men  as  Parker  and  New- 
man, in  attaching  no  importance  whatever  to  an  ob- 
jective revelation ;  and,  as  we  will  see,  in  the  case  of 
such  as  Morell,  in  assigning  a  very  subordinate  place 
to  it. 

In  treating  of  the  Essence  of  Christianity,  which  is 
done  in  the  next  chapter,  the  subjectivity  of  our  au- 
thor becomes  more  and  more  manifest.  We  reckon 
this  chapter  a  complete  misnomer.  It  is  as  if  an 
astronomer  were  to  give  us  an  historical  description 
of  the  thoughts  and  feelings  awakened  within  him 
during  his  surveys  of  the  heavens,  and  to  designate 
it  a  treatise  on  astronomy,  instead  of  giving  us  a  dis- 
course on  the  magnitudes,  distances,  and  revolutions 
of  the  planets.  The  Essence  of  Christianity  is  a 
phrase  which  conveys  to  an  English  reader  the  idea 
of  those  grand  doctrines  which  distinguish  it  from  all 
other  forms  of  religion.  But  Mr.  Morell  generally 
here  puts  the  effect  for  the  cause,  and  sometimes 
plays  on  the  two  different  senses  of  Christianity  as 
objective  and  subjective.  He  says,  "  The  only  mode 
in  which  we  can  assign  the  true  nature  of  Christianity, 
relativehj  to  all  other  religions  in  the  world,  and  show 
wherein  its  essential  and  distinguishing  feature  con- 
Bists,"  is  to  consider  "what  is  the  distinguishing  fea- 
ture   of   man's    relisrious  nature,  when  it    has   come 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  217 

properly  under  the  Christian  influence."^  He  denies 
that  what  are  esteemed  the  prominent  facts  and  main 
doctrines  of  Christianity  determine  the  essence  of 
Christianity  itself  This,  he  tells  us,  "does  not  con 
sist  in  any  development  of  thought,  but  in  the  flow 
of  holy  affections."^  The  outward  revelation,  accord- 
ing to  this  system,  is  not  Christianity,  it  is  only  a 
means  to  awaken  it.  The  Gospel  is  viewed  rather 
as  an  external  provision  for  cultivating  certain  states 
of  feeling,  than  as  an  authoritative  communication 
from  heaven  designed  to  build  us  up  in  the  knowledge 
of  Divine  things.  Christianity,  as  a  distinct  spiritual 
life,  is  made  to  occupy  the  place  of  Christianity  as  a 
body  of  inspired  truth  by  which  the  spiritual  life  is 
organized.  The  true  state  of  matters  is  completely 
reversed.  And  this  Philosophy  of  Religion  tends, 
like  the  systems  of  Parker  and  Newman,  to  make 
everything  of  the  feelings  within,  and  to  reduce  to 
little  or  almost  nothing  the  objective  truth  that  lies 
without. 

Mr.  Morell,  though  chiefly  engrossed  with  the 
subjective  point  of  view,  does  not,  however,  ignore 
the  objective.  He  defines  Christianity,  viewed  as  an 
outward  condition  of  the  religious  life,  to  be  "that 
religion  which  rests  upon  the  consciousness  of  the 
redemption  of  the  world  through  Jesus  Christ."^  He 
very  properly  notices  two  great  and  essential  points 
here — "the  exdusiveness  of  Christianity  as  the  sole 
appointed  means  of  human  recovery,  and  the  concen- 

'  Philosophy  of  Keligion,  p.  100.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  256. 

'Ibid.,  p.  118. 

12 


218  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

tration  of  the  agency  for  sucli  recovery  in  tlie  life  and 
person  of  Christ,  historically  considered."^  But  be- 
yond this  we  have  no  explanation.  He  does  not  say 
what  is  implied  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  or 
what  was  the  nature  of  the  moral  expedient  devised 
for  its  accomplishment.  And  he  is  silent  also  as  to 
the  truth  about  the  personal  Redeemer.  This  is  un- 
pardonable even  in  a  philosophical  discussion  of  the 
essence  of  Christianity,  and  while  professing  to  look 
at  the  objective  side  of  the  question.  Mr.  Morell 
knows  very  well  that  the  redemption  of  the  world 
through  Christ  is  about  one  of  the  vaguest  expressions 
current  in  modern  times.  It  would  cover  the  whole 
"school  of  progress."  Under  its  ample  shade  would 
come  multitudes  of  teachers  in  Germany,  America, 
England,  and  elsewhere,  whose  ideas  of  redemption 
and  the  Redeemer  are  as  far  apart  from  the  Christian 
doctrines  as  the  east  is  from  the  west.  This  vague 
and  brief  allusion  to  the  objective  element  can  only 
be  explained  on  the  principle,  so  dear  to  our  modern 
sentimentalists,  of  unduly  magnifying  everything 
within  man  and  lessening  whatever  comes  to  him  in 
the  shape  of  religion  from  without.  What  Mr.  Morell's 
views  are  of  the  process  through  which  the  redemption 
of  the  world  has  been  effected,  and  of  the  personal 
constitution  of  the  Redeemer  we  know  not.  But  he 
has  laid  himself  open  to  the  suspicion  of  making  the 
essential  elements  of  the  Christian  life  independent 
Df  those  grand   peculiar  doctrines  which  have   been 

*  Philosophy  of  Reh'glon,  p.  1 19. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  219 

generally   understood   to   be   the   truth   as    it    is    in 
Jesus/ 

It  is  foreign  to  our  purpose  to  review  the  whole  of 
"The  Philosophy  of  Religion."  We  only  point  out 
some  of  its  strongly-marked  tendencies  towards  that 
philosophic  spiritualism  which  is  so  destructive  of  the 
essence  of  Christianity.  These  are,  indeed,  to  be  found 
in  every  chapter  of  the  work.  In  passing  on,  for  ex- 
ample, to  speak  of  the  method  by  which  Christianity 
was  first  communicated  to  the  human  mind,  he  defines 
revelation  to  be  "a  process  of  the  intuitional  con- 
sciousness gazing  upon  eternal  verities."-  He  denies 
that  the  Bible,  strictly  speaking,  is  a  revelation,  "  since 
a  revelation  always  implies  an  actual  process  of  in- 
telligence in  a  living  mind."^  And  he  asserts  that 
"  the  power  which  that  book  possesses  of  conveying  a 
revelation  to  us,  consists  in  its  aiding  in  the  awaken- 
ment  and  elevation  of  our  religious  consciousness." 
We  have  here,  as  throughout  the  whole  treatise,  a 
systematic  undervaluing  of  objective  truth.  Christ 
and  His  apostles  are  represented  as  giving  no  exposi- 


'  "  No  philosophy  of  religion  that  assumes  to  embrace  Christianity 
can  be  complete  if  it  does  not  show  that  salvation  was  effectuated  by 
a  process  alike  congruous  with  the  Divine  character,  and  with  man's 
constitution  and  moral  necessity.  It  may  be  replied  that  this  is' the 
province  of  Christian  theology,  and  not  of  internal  subjective  Chris- 
tianity. We  incline,  however,  to  the  opinion  that  the  idea  of  •'  s, 
just  God  and  a  Saviour,'  through  the  atonement  of  Christ,  is  the 
meeting-place,  the  jaoint  where  Christianity  as  a  theology  loses  itself 
in  Christianity  as  a  religion." — Mr.  Morell  and  the  Sources  of  hu 
Information^  p.  38. 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  141.  "  Ibid.,  pp.  143,  144. 


220  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

tion  of  Christian  doctrine  to  the  understanding,  but 
as  seeking  to  awaken  man's  power  of  spiritual  intui- 
tion ;  and,  since  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Paul  gives 
such  a  systematic  inculcation  of  truth,  we  are  re- 
minded that  "his  writings  were  designed  not  so  much 
to  be  a  revelation  of  truth,  as  a  further  explication  of 
it."^  He  would  make  Paul  the  theologian,  and  John 
the  intuitionist.  Now,  in  reply  to  this,  it  might  be 
said,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  is  not  true,  that  Christ 
and  the  apostles  gave  no  systematic  exposition  of  doc- 
trine. The  sermon  on  the  mount,  and  the  discourse 
on  the  way  to  Emmaus  when  "  beginning  at  Moses 
and  all  the  prophets,  he  expounded  unto  them  in  all 
the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  himself,"  not  to 
mention  other  discourses,  contradict  the  statement  in 
so  far  as  the  Great  Teacher  is  concerned.  The  book 
of  Acts  falsifies  the  statement  in  reference  to  the 
apostles.  And,  in  the  logical  expositions  of  Paul,  we 
have  as  many  new  ideas  revealed  as  in  John,  which 
proves  that  truth  may  be  given  first  in  a  systematic 
or  theological  form.  Besides,  it  is  a  mere  play  on 
words  to  say  that  the  revelation  was  made  in  the  mind, 
not  in  the  Book.  The  Bible  is  the  actual  revelation 
imparted  to  the  minds  of  the  sacred  writers.  It  brings 
us  in  contact  with  knowledge  which,  in  its  origin,  lay 
beyond  both  the  intuitional  and  the  logical  conscious- 
ness ;  and,  in  conveying  the  truth  to  us,  it  addresses 
the  understanding,  and,  through  it,  rises  higher  into 
the  region  of  actual  experience.     God  disclosed  the 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  139 — 141. 


OF   THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  221 

revelation  originally  in  the  minds  of  Isaiah  and  Paul, 
and  the  inspiring  Spirit  so  guided  them  that  the  oracle 
came  forth  unchanged  to  us.  What  Mr.  Morell,  then, 
calls  special  and  Divine  arrangements  for  elevating  the 
religious  consciousness,  we  persist  in  calling  the  revela- 
tion of  God. 

The  preceding  remarks  have  prepared  us  for  con- 
sidering what  our  author's  views  are  as  to  the  true 
bond  of  religious  fellowship  and  as  to  the  true  basis 
of  religious  certitude.  And  here,  also,  the  man  of 
mere  feeling  appears  very  prominent.  Things  which 
God  hath  joined  together  are  here  put  asunder. 
''The  ground  of  all  true  union  amongst  Christians," 
he  tells  us,  "is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  common 
consent  of  the  understanding  to  certain  theological 
definitions,  but  in  the  common  development  of  the 
intuitional  consciousness  as  regards  man's  religious 
life."^  It  is  not  enough  for  Mr.  Morell  to  say,  that 
no  system  of  theological  doctrine  can  of  itself  secure 
religious  fellowship,  he  must  maintain  that  the  latter 
is  independent  of  the  former.  He  reasons  on  the 
assumption  that  if  the  basis  of  fellowship  be  moral  in 
its  character  it  cannot  be  theological,  or  that  if  it  be 
theological  it  cannot  be  moral.  We  have  always 
thought  that  the  moral  power  of  Christianity  lay  in 
its  doctrines  understood  and  believed,  and  that 
Christian  fellowship,  or  a  true  evangelical  alliance, 
must  depend  upon  unanimity  of  religious  feeling  and 
adoption  of  common  doctrines  combined ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  that  the  influence  of  the  two  things 
*  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  288. 


222  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

would  be  reciprocal,  the  belief  in  the  common  doc- 
trines strengthening  the  common  feeling,  and  the 
common  feeling  strengthening  the  belief  in  the 
doctrines.  But  "The  Philosophy  of  Religion,"  in 
accordance  with  its  previous  speculations,  separates  the 
one  from  the  other. 

Mr.  MorelFs  first  reason  for  rejecting  a  fixed  the- 
ological test  of  fellowship,  is  the  want  of  authority 
for  it  in  the  apostolic  church.  "  The  bond  of 
union,"  he  says,^  "amongst  the  early  churches  was, 
the  powerful  awakening  of  the  religious  conscious- 
ness, originating  in  and  maintained  by  an  intense 
belief  of  the  great  facts  connected  with  the  life, 
the  death,  and  the  resurrection  of  Christ."  And 
what,  we  ask,  were  these  great  facts  but  a  doctrinal 
basis  ?  His  second  reason,  which  he  anticipates 
will  startle  us,  is,  that  theological  statements  do  not 
contain  any  essential  element  of  Christianity."  This 
S-rises  out  of  the  false  principle  that  the  essence  of 
Christianity  is  only  cognizable  directly  by  the  intui- 
tional consciousness,  and  is  supported  only  by  telling 
us  of  persons  who  "take  the  sign  for  the  thing;  the 
counter  for  the  money."  But  his  principal  objection, 
"  and  one  which  admits  of  historical  verification,"  is, 
that  a  fixed  logical  or  doctrinal  basis,  "  tends  inevita- 
bly to  the  gradual  extinction  of  all  that  is  positive  in 
Christianity."^  Mr.  Morell's  historical  evidence  only 
proves  that  churches,  despite  their  doctrinal  standards, 
have   often   lost   the   life    of    true    religion,   a   thing 

*  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  271.  '  Ibid.,  p.  273. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  278. 


OF   THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  223 

which  no  one  denies,  but  against  which  the  mere 
flow  of  feeling,  irrespective  of  objective  truth,  affords 
no  guarantee.  He  appeals,  among  other  places,  to 
Geneva  and  Scotland,^  and  so  do  we.  And  we  tell 
him  that  there  is  a  church  in  Geneva — though  it  be 
little  among  the  thousands  of  Judah — possessed  of 
life  and  power,  which  adhere  firmly  to  a  doctrinal 
basis ;  and  that  no  country  has  ever  enjoyed  more  of 
the  religious  life  than  Scotland,  which  has  always 
attached  much  importance  to  theological  doctrines. 
We  have  as  little  sympathy  as  Mr.  Morell  with  lifeless 
forms  and  a  barren  orthodoxy.  But  the  idea  that 
men,  or  communities,  can  be  knit  together  in  holy 
love,  while  "at  variance  on  great  essential  doctrines, 
is  perfectly  Utopian.  There  is  much  in  this  talk  of 
leaving  doctrinal  matters  undetermined  in  view  of  a 
broad  and  general  fellowship,  that  reminds  one  of 
Parker's  "  absolute  religion"  and  Newman's  "  doctrine 
of  divine  sympathy,"  over  each  of  which  might  be 
inscribed,  "wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the  way, 
and  many  there  be  which  go  in  thereat." 

Mr.  Morell's  basis  of  religious  certitude  accords 
with  his  basis  of  religious  fellowship.  He  removes 
it  from  the  Bible  page  to  the  religious  consciousness 
of  humanity  which  it  awakens.  "  The  basis  of  cer- 
titude," he  says,  "lies  in  the  essential  characteristics  of 
the  intuitions  themselves — in  their  distinctness,  in 
their  uniformity,  and,  under  due  influences,  in  their 
universality;  not  in  their  symbolical  representation 
upon   the  sacred    page."^     The   test   is    thus   shifted 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  284—286.  '  Ibid.,  p.  337. 


224  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

from  tlie  inspired  Book — tlie  law  and  tlie  testimony — • 
to  a  comparison  of  inward  experiences.  The  ultimate 
appeal  is  not,  wliat  saith  the  Scripture?  but,  what  is 
the  catholic  feeling  and  thinking  of  the  Christian 
community?  Such  an  appeal  may,  in  certain  cir- 
cumstances, serve  to  corroborate,  but  can  never  afford 
a  sure  criterion.  And  then,  how  could  it  be  applied 
in  cases  where  the  teachers  of  Christianity  have  stood 
almost  alone,  their  intuitions  of  spiritual  things  being 
very  partially  experienced  by  others?  Besides,  how 
are  distinct,  uniform,  and  universal  intuitions  to  be 
secured,  except  through  a  living  faith  in  the  great 
Christian  doctrines  as  revealed  in  the  Bible  ?  So  that 
the  catholic  feeling  and  thinking  of  the  whole 
Christian  community  must  fall  back  on  the  Scriptures 
as  at  once  a  ground  and  test.  The  want  of  uniform- 
ity in  the  results  of  Bibilical  interpretation,  is  urged 
by  our  author  as  a  formidable  objection  against  making 
the  Scriptures  the  basis  of  religious  certitude;  and 
the  doctrine  of  private  judgment  is  falsely  represented 
as  if  rationalism  were  its  inevitable  landing-place. - 
It  were  easy  to  retaliate  the  charge  of  want  of  uni- 
formity, and  to  show  that  we  have  no  security  for  it 
in  mere  inward  experiences  ;  but  the  charge  is  unduly 
exaggerated.  There  is  a  wonderful  harmony  in  the 
several  sections  of  the  Christian  church,  in  regard  to 
the  bearings  of  Scripture  on  the  great  doctrines  of 
salvation;  and  our  complacency  in  that  harmony  is 
not  disturbed,  any  more  than  our  confidence  in  the 
principle  of  private  judgement  is  shaken,  by  pointing 

*  Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  334,  335. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION:  225 

* 

US  to  such  reckless  unbelieving  interpreters  as  Paulus 
and  Strauss.     We  deny  that  the  doctrine  of  private 
judgment   necessarily  cuts  us  off  from  the  Christian 
consciousness   of  mankind,  while   we   assert   that   its 
legitimate  exercise  is  in  searching  the  Scriptures  to 
see   whether   or   not   these   things   are   so.     But   the 
"Philosophy   of  Religion"  will  not   allow  "that  the 
data   of  Christian   theology  lie   before  us   fixed   and 
complete  in  the  Bible. "^     And   imitations  are   given 
as  if  Christian  ideas  were  subject  to  the  same  laws  of 
development   as   the   truths   of    astronomy.     It    is   a 
fallacy  to  speak  of  Christian  doctrine  as  a  germ  which 
received  its  first  great  unfolding  in  the  apostolic  age, 
and  which  goes  on  receiving  other  unfoldings.     The 
Christian  doctrine  is  not  more  fully  unfolded  in  the 
mind  of  a  believer  now  than   it  was  in  the  days  of 
Paul.     The  progress  made  from  the  day  of  Pentecost 
till  the  apostles  finished  their  course,  does  not  find  its 
parallel   in   the   progress   subsequently   made   in   the 
church.     In   the   former   period,    the   revelation   was 
going  on ;  the  latter  period  received  it  complete.     And 
the  only  kind  of  progress  that  awaits  Christianity,  is 
the  glorious  one  of  seeing  nation  after  nation  coming 
to  this  "  sempiternal  source  of  truth  divine,"  and  all 
the  sections  of  the  church  deeply  influenced  by,  and 
united  together  in,   the  belief  of  the   "common  sal- 
vation."    Mr.   Morell's  hopes  for  the  world  and  for 
unity  and  peace  to  the  church,  rest,  however,  on  the 
power  of  the   intuitional   consciousness,   and  on   the 
development  of  a  new  philosophy  which  shall  smite 

•  Philosophy  of  Religion,  pp.  375,  376. 


226  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

all  our  theological  dogmas  and  elevate  us  to  the  region 
of  catholic  feeling.  The  spiritualism  of  Mr.  Morell 
wants  the  bold  ofFensiveness  of  Parker  and  Newman, 
but  it  has  this  feature,  in  common,  that  it  unduly 
magnifies  everything  within  man,  and  leaves  little  or 
no  authority  to  the  objective  truth  lying  without.^ 


Such  speculations  as  the  above,  surrender  Chris- 
tianity into  the  power  of  mere  sentiment.  That,  as 
we  have  seen  in   the  case  of  Parker,  Newman,   and 


"  It  is  with  this  principle  of  subjectivity,  that  the  Evangelical 
Church  in  Geneva  have  now  to  contend.  There  is  much  in  Scherer's 
letter  to  D'Aubigne  that  reminds  us  of  some  of  our  own  spiritualists, 
all  of  whom  have  drank  of  the  philosophy  beyond  the  Rhine.  He 
says,  "  the  Scriptures  are  the  productions  of  Great  saints,  or  of  great 
religious  heroes."  "  The  inspiration  of  the  apostles  is  purely  relig- 
ious." "  For  the  simple  believer,  the  Bible  is  no  longer  an  authority, 
but  it  is  a  treasured  "  Biblicism  is  not  merely  a  theological  error, 
but  it  is  a  plague  upon  the  Church."  Calvin,  Beza,  and  the  other 
Genevese  theologians,  had  to  combat  the  same  errors  three  centuries 
ago.  The  President  of  the  Theological  Institute,  who  is  now  fighting 
the  same  good  fight,  says  in  hip  well-timed  treatise  :  "  I  dread  this 
subjective  tendency  in  our  times.  I  dread  it,  convinced  that  it 
cannot  fail  to  have  the  same  developments,  and  the  same  conse- 
quences, that  it  had  in  the  sixteenth  century.  You  have  remarked 
the  sad  progression  of  this  opinion.  Ghatillon  simply  taught  the  doc- 
trine which  substitutes  the  authority  of  the  individual  spirit  for  the 
authority  of  Divine  Scripture.  But  every  seed  bears  its  fruit.  This 
doctrine,  soon  after  professed  by  Socinus  and  Servetus,  first  overthrew 
all  the  doctrines  o"f  faith  ;  then,  interpreted  by  Coppin,  Pocquet,  Gruet, 
and  the  libertines,  overthrows  all  tlie  precepts  of  morality.  It  tlius 
brought  foi-th  great  heresies  and  frightful  irregularities.  The  pro 
grcssion  is  terrible,  but  inevitable,  .  .  .  7%e foundation  of  Christian 
dogma  and  Christian  morality,  is  involved  in  these  opinions. —  Tlte 
Authority  of  God,  by  D'Aubigne,  pp.  189,  190. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  227 

Mackay,  is  made  tlie  test  and  arbiter  of  truth.  And 
the  tendency  of  much  in  the  "  Philosophy  of  Religion," 
is  to  bring  matters  to  the  same  standard.  Mr.  Morell 
imagines,  that  under  such  custody,  we  would  be  led 
"from  the  barren  region  of  mere  logical  forms,  into 
the  hallowed  path  of  divine  life."  The  men  of  the 
"  School  of  Progress"  know  full  well  what  these  paths 
are,  and  hence  their  complacency  in  his  speculations. 
He  has  not  urged  the  moral  argument  against  the 
evangelical  doctrines,  nor  do  we  charge  him  with 
denying  them,  but  those  who  do  urge  it  are  disposed 
to  look  upon  him  as  an  auxiliary  in  the  same  warfare. 
It  is  this  argument  that  runs  throughout,  or  under- 
lies, many  of  the  writings  of  our  philosophical  spirit- 
.ualists.  It  extends,  like  a  broad  belt,  through 
Parker's  "Discourse,"  and  Newman's  "Phases."  It 
is  involved  in  very  much  of  Mackay's  "Progress." 
And,  in  some  other  productions,  it  is  supposed  to 
receive  a  tacit,  if  not  an  avowed,  support.  Texts  of 
Scripture,  involving  the  obnoxious  doctrines  of  re- 
demption, which  will  not  bend  before  a  neological 
exegesis,  are  reduced  under  the  weight  of  what  is 
called  the  moral  argument.  We  shall  scrutinize  it 
for  a  little. 

The  argument  is  grounded  on  the  supposed  con- 
tradiction between  men's  moral  sentiments  and  the 
peculiar  tenets  of  the  evangelical  creed.  God  is  the 
author  of  our  moral  nature,  and  his  revealed  will 
must  harmonize  with  its  utterances.  The  voice  of 
the  Immutable  One  within  the  breast,  pronouncing 
decisively  on  right  and  wrong,  can  never  be  falsified. 


228  spiritualism;  or  the  denial 

or  disputed,  by  the  voice  speaking  in  the  word.  Man's 
reason  and  moral  consciousness,  it  is  alleged,  are 
opposed  to  much  of  what  currently  passes  for  the 
Christian  theology.  In  the  latter,  views  are  given  of 
God  and  man  so  dark  and  awful  as  to  be  repulsed  by 
the  former.  There  is  a  collision,  it  is  maintained, 
between  the  dark  creed  of  depravity,  the  vindictive 
justice  of  God  as  exhibited  in  the  atonement,  and  the 
indestructible  judgments  and  feelings  of  the  human 
heart.  Christ  has  revealed  unto  us  the  Father,  and 
it  sufi&ceth  us.  He  has  taught  us  to  look  up  to 
heaven,  and  inspired  with  filial  confidence,  to  say, 
"  Our  Abba,  our  Father."  He  has  inculcated  love  to 
our  enemies,  that  we  may  be  the  children  of  our 
Father  in  heaven,  who  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the 
evil  and  on  the  good.  He  has  bidden  us  behold  God 
as  a  Father  feeding  the  fowls  of  the  air,  clothing  the 
lilies  of  the  field,  and  much  more  caring  for  men  his 
own  children.  These  are  sentiments  which  meet 
with  a  welcome  response  in  every  human  bosom,  and 
they  proclaim  themselves  divine.  They  are  in  unison 
with  those  genial  currents  of  thought  and  feeling 
which  flow  through  the  soul  of  every  man  of  sen- 
sibility, when  looking  on  the  shining  heavens  and  the 
green  earth,  and  which  move  him  to  say,  "My  Father 
made  them  all."  It  is  in  this  endearing  character, 
that  we  must  view  Him  as  presiding  over  the  universe, 
pitying  men  even  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children, 
and  making  all  things  to  work  together  for  their  good. 
And,  it  is  in  this  character,  that  we  would  expect  to 
meet  Him,  in  making  a  special  revelation  of  himself 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  22^ 

to  the  world.  But  the  doctrines  of  what  is  called 
evangelism,  continues  the  objector,  conflict  with  such 
sentiments  as  these.  Man  is  therein  represented  as 
a  most  wretched  object,  a  creature  shapen  in  iniquity, 
and  a  child  of  wrath.  The  God  of  mercy  is  exhib- 
ited as  incensed  against  his  own  offspring,  making  a 
heavy  exaction  for  their  guilt,  and  being  appeased 
only  by  the  interposition  of  his  well-beloved  Son. 
Hepentance  does  not  snfiice  to  procure  forgiveness, 
as,  from  the  fatherly  character  of  God,  we  would 
have  been  led  to  suppose.  But  an  atonement  must 
first  be  made  to  turn  away  God's  wrath,  and  a  super- 
natural power  must  be  exerted  to  raise  man  up  from 
his  degradation. 

These  are  strong  statements.  There  is  in  them 
much  gross  misrepresentation.  But .  it  is  in  some 
such  way  as  this,  that  the  religion  of  the  moral  senti- 
ments and  the  orthodox  creed  are  arrayed  against  each 
other.  It  is  not,  as  in  the  old  rationalistic  controversy. 
a  warfare  waged  on  the  ground  of  critical  exegesis. 
But  it  is  an  attempt  to  set  the  moral  nature  of  man 
over  against  what  the  general  mind  of  Christendom 
has  pronounced  to  be  the  Revelation  of  God.  Are, 
then,  the  doctrines  of  redemption  irreconcilable  with 
the  paternity  of  God ;  and  do  the  persons  who  urge 
the  moral  objection  give  a  view  of  the  Divine  charac- 
ter that  is  adequate,  and  consistent  with  the  nature 
of  things  ?     We  trow  not ;  and  we  assign  our  reasons. 

1st.  This  argument  is  unsupported  by  analogy.  Al- 
though urged  by  professed  theists,  it  is  as  applicable  to 
natural  religion  as  to  revealed.     If  it  has  any  bearing 


230  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

against  the  great  facts  of  the  scriptural  record  it  has 
not  less  against  the  great  facts  of  the  book  of  provi- 
dence. The  argument  is  an  old  and  by  no  means  an 
invincible  one.  The  answer  is  old  also,  and,  in  our 
estimation,  a  truly  satisfactory  one.  The  gist  of  the 
argument  is,  that  God  must  always  act  in  accordance 
with  the  simple  idea  of  his  paternal  character ;  and 
that  the  doctrines  of  redemption,  militating,  as  is 
alleged,  against  that  idea,  cannot  in  their  orthodox 
sense  be  true.  Carrying  along  with  us,  then,  the 
simple  and  exclusive  idea  of  paternity,  suppose  that 
from  the  date  of  our  creation  we  had  dwelt  in  another 
region  of  God's  empire  where  sin  and  misery  were 
unknown,  where  knowledge  of  the  most  delightful 
kind  was  diffused  wide  as  the  light,  and  where  all 
the  inhabitants  were  perfectly  holy  and  happy.  Sup- 
pose, farther,  that  we  had  known  nothing,  by  report 
or  otherwise,  of  the  moral  and  physical  condition  of 
this  earth,  but  that  at  a  certain  period  we  alighted 
on  its  soil  and  mingled  with  its  children ;  would  we 
not  have  found  much  in  the  condition  of  mankind 
irreconcilable  with  the  simple  and  exclusive  idea  of 
the  paternity  of  God  ?  We  are  far  from  believing 
that  there  is  any  part  of  the  wide  universe,  however 
sinless  and  happy,  the  inhabitants  of  which  have  no 
other  idea  of  the  Eternal  than  that  of  a  Father. 
The  idea  of  paternity  is  of  all  others  the  most  de- 
lightful, and,  in  such  a  province  of  the  Creator's 
dominions  as  that  supposed,  will  be  most  vivid.  But 
it  is  not  all-comprehending.  It  is  a  glory  that  blends 
with  other  glories  in  the  Divine  character,  and  the 


OF    THE    EIBLE    REDEMPTION.  231 

idea  will  consequently  be  associated  with  other  ideas 
in  the  minds  of  those  beings  who  have  the  most  en- 
larged and  correct  knowledge  of  God.  But,  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  we  suppose  ourselves  to  have  lived 
in  some  remote  happy  region,  and  then,  bringing 
along  with  us  the  exclusively  vivid  idea  of  paternity, 
to  have  come  into  this  world ;  and  we  ask,  how  much 
in  its  condition  would  we  not  have  found  apparently 
at  variance  with  it  ? 

There  is  the  palpable  fact  of  moral  evil  meeting 
us  at  every  step,  a  fact  which,  however  much  men 
may  attempt  to  disguise  or  mitigate  it,  cannot  be 
denied.  The  existence  of  this,  in  any  part  of  the 
earth,  would  be  to  us  a  monstrous  anomaly,  and 
conflict  mightily  with  our  exclusive  idea  of  the 
Divine  paternity.  Much  more  would  this  happen, 
when  we  ascertained  that  it  was  neither  local  nor 
temporary,  that  traces  of  it  were  to  be  found  wherever 
man  set  his  foot,  and  that  it  had  been  perpetuated 
from  generation  to  generation  ever  since  the  existence 
of  the  first  family.  Here^  we  might  say,  is  a  phe- 
nomenon, which,  judging  from  our  notions  of  the 
paternal  character  of  the  Divine  dispensations,  we 
would  never  have  expected.  And  how  account  for 
the  permission  at  first,  and  for  the  prevalence  hither- 
to, of  this  dreadful  evil  in  a  world  under  the  supreme 
control  of  Him  whom  we  have  been  accustomed  to 
regard  as  the  Father  of  his  creation,  the  wisest  and 
best  Father  of  his  people  ? 

Then   again,    there   is   the   moral   nature   of  man, 
speaking    clearly,    by    its    primitive    judgments,    on 


232  spiritualism;  ok,  the  denial 

behalf  of  truth  and  rectitude,  and  yet  ever  in  love 
with  error  and  swerving  from  the  right  path.  The 
human  soul  declaring,  by  the  wondrous  natural 
powers  w^th  which  it  has  been  endowed,  that  it  is 
celestial  in  its  origin ;  and  yet  making  it  evident, 
by  the  manifestation  of  these  powers,  that  it  is  allied 
to  the  dust.  This  is  what  we  never  would  have  an- 
ticipated under  the  government  of  Him  who  is  the 
Father  of  spirits.  And,  as  we  travelled  through  this 
world,  or  read  its  history  in  past  ages,  and  became 
acquainted  with  the  ignorance,  the  irreligion,  and 
suifering  that  prevailed,  our  preconceived  notions 
would  be  the  more  scattered,  and  our  exclusive  idea 
of  paternity  be  brought  the  more  into  conflict  with 
actual  realities.  Here  and  there,  we  would  perceive 
a,  few  minds,  like  tall  trees  studding  at  intervals  a 
level  tract  of  country,  rising  by  their  intelligence  and 
attainments  above  the  crowd;  while  the  greater  part 
of  that  crowd  were  grovelling,  ignorant,  sensual. 
The  perplexities  would  increase,  and  the  gloom 
thicken  upon  us,  as  we  proceeded  to  consider  the 
religious  condition  of  mankind  in  general.  Here,  on 
an  insignificant  spot  of  the  world's  map,  would  we 
behold  a  small  portion  of  the  race  possessing  any 
thing  like  worthy  conceptions  of  God ;  and,  even 
among  these,  an  ever  manifesting  tendency  to  corrupt 
that  knowledge  and  to  depart  from  Him ;  while,  in  re- 
ference to  the  rest,  we  would  find  the  description  of 
the  sacred  oracle  to  be  by  no  means  exaggerated,  "  dark- 
ness covered  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the  people." 
The  darkness  would  become  the  more  visible,  and 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  233 

the  anomalies  the  more  bewildering,  on  noticing  the 
moral  and  physical  -suiFering  that  prevailed.  What  a 
vast  and  varied  amount  of  mental  and  bodily  distress 
meets  the  eye  in  this  direction  and  in  that !  The 
thirst  for  happiness  is  insatiable,  the  cry  is  deep, 
earnest,  and  incessant,  "who  will  show  us  any  good?" 
The  yearnings  and  strivings  of  the  human  spirit 
indicate  that  happiness  is  "  our  being's  end  and  aim," 
— and  yet  men  in  general  fail  of  attaining  to  it. 
The  moral  viciousness  of  individuals  and  commu- 
nities has  its  counterpart  in  dreadful  and  compli- 
cated sufferings.  Here^  we  see  physical  ills  following 
moral  transgressions  with  something  like  the  certainty 
of  fixed  laws ;  and  there^  we  behold  ever  and  anon  in 
history,  terrible  special  interpositions  in  the  form  of 
famine  or  flood,  pestilence  or  war,  proclaiming  to 
those  who  have  ears  to  hear,  that  there  is  verily  a 
God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth.  The  innocent  are 
involved  in  these  calamities,  as  well  as  the  guilty. 
The  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children. 
The  good  and  beneficent  are  not  unfrequently  over- 
whelmed in  the  same  national  judgments  that  come 
upon  the  evil-doers  and  the  profane. 

This  is  a  state  of  matters,  a  complicated  scene  of 
ignorance  and  irreligion,  of  moral  and  physical  suf- 
fering, which  the  inhabitants  of  a  sinless  world, 
having  a  vivid  idea  of  the  paternity  of  God,  would 
have  found  on  their  arrival,  (until  the  explanation  was 
given,)  to  be  awfully  and  distressingly  embarrassing. 
And,  had  it  been  possible  for  such  intelligences  to 
have  had  no  other  idea  of  God  but  the  paternal  one, 


234  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

tliey  would  -have  learned  that  some  other  must  be 
embraced,  and  that  between  them  there  was  the  most 
perfect  harmony.  Here,  then,  we  meet  the  objection 
against  the  doctrines  of  'the  Christian  redemption, 
urged  on  the  ground  of  their  supposed  contrariety  to 
the  paternal  character  of  God.  The  objector  says, 
tlie  atonement  and  the  system  of  which  it  forms  the 
centre,  are  utterly  at  variance  with  what  we,  judging 
from  His  character  as  a  father,  would  have  supposed 
God  to  have  done  had  he  interposed  on  behalf  of  the 
human  race.  We  ask  the  objector,  is  that  world 
without  and  around  you  such  as  you  would  have  sup- 
posed it  would  be  ?  Had  you  come  from  another 
sphere  with  no  other  idea  about  God  in  your  head 
than  the  paternal  one,  would  you  have  expected  to 
have  found  that  mysterious  and  mighty  thing,  moral 
evil,  at  the  heart  of  humanity,  perpetuating  and  dif- 
fusing itself  from  age  to  age,  and  bringing  in  its 
train  such  an  amount  of  moral  and  physical  wretch- 
edness as  has  inscribed  on  the  world's  history, 
mourning,  and  lamentation,  and  woe  ?  We  ask  you 
to  reconcile  that  fact,  which  is  patent  to  every  eye, 
with  your  preconceived  notions  of  the  paternity  of 
God ;  and  we  tell  you,  that  you  could  no  more  ward 
off  the  objection  which  the  supposed  visitant  might 
bring  against  the  condition  of  our  world,  than,  as 
you  suppose,  it  can  be  warded  off  from  the  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  redemption.^ 

'  Harrington  the  sceptic,  who  had  been  prevented  from  taking 
refuge  in  the  "  half- way  houses "  between  the  Bible  and  religious 
scepticism,  says  :  "  If  I  acquiesce,  on  Mr.  Newman's  grounds,  in 
the    rejection  of  the    Bible    as   a    special  revelation  of  Grod,  I  am 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  235 

2d.  The  view  of  tlie  Divine  character  taken  by 
this  argument,  is  'one-sided  and  partial.  It  embraces 
a  delightful  and  important  truth,  but  it  is  not  the 
whole  truth,  nor  the  whole  of  the  most  important 
truth.  God  is  the  common  father  of  o.ll  his  creatures. 
"Have  we  not  all  one  father,  hath  not  one  God 
created  us?"  And  it  is  in  this  character,  that  He 
opens  his  hand,  and  satisfies  the  desires  of  every 
living  thing.  The  child  feels  the  sweet  power  of  this 
truth,  when,  with  bended  knee  and  uplifted  heart  and 
look,  he  says,  "  our  Father  which  art  in  heaven." 
The  man  of  feeling,  casting  his  eye  over  the  varied 
face  of  nature,  is  moved,  and  justly  so,  at  the  thought 
of  that  immense  paternity  which  embraces  heaven 
Siydi  earth,  and  the  whole  empire  of  animated  being 
from  the  seraph  to  the  reptile.  And  the  Christian 
has  been  taught,  by  the  holy  oracles,  to  look  upon 
God  as  being  in  the  highest  sense  his  Father,  and  as 
thus  making  all  things  work  together  for  his  good. 
But  the  regal  character  pertains  no  less  to  the  DiviiAe 

compelled  on  the  very  same  principles  to  go  a  few  stops  further,  and  to 
express  doubts  of  the  absolutely  divine  original  of  the  Woj'ld,  and 
the  administration  thereof,  just  as  he  does  of  the  divine  original  of 
the  Bible.  If  I  concede  to  Mr.  Newman,  however  we  may  differ  as 
to  the  moral  and  spiritual  faculties  of  man,  that  these  are  yet  the 
sole  and  ultimate  court  of  appeals  to  us ;  that  from  our  '  intuitions  ' 
of  right  and  wrong,  of  '  moral  and  spiritual  truth,'  be  they  more 
perfect  according  to  him,  or  more  rudimentary  and  imperfect  accord- 
ing to  nie,  we  must  form  a  judgment  of  the  moral  bearings  of  every 
presumed  external  revelation  of  God,  I  cannot  do  otherwise  than 
reject  much  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  his  presumed  Works  a3 
unworthy  of  him,  just  as  Mr.  Newman  does  very  much  in  his  sup- 
posed IVoid  as  ec[ually  unworthy  of  him." — The  Eclijjse  of  fUith, 
p.  147. 


236  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

Being  than  does  the  parental ;  and  nature  and  revela- 
tion teach  us  to  regard  Him  as  a  Sovereign  no  less 
than  a  Parent.  The  two  ideas  blend  together,  and  are 
realized,  in  the  utmost  perfection,  in  the  Divine  nature ; 
and  so  should  they  blend  in  our  conceptions  of  what 
God  is,  and  of  what  are  his  relations  to  our  world. 
He  is  not  only  the  best  and  wisest  of  fathers,  but  the 
most  righteous,  benignant,  and  powerful  of  kings. 
The  same  dispensation  of  Providence  may  bring 
impressively  before  our  mind  this  two-fold  view  of 
the  Divine  relation.  Afflictions,  in  one  sense,  are 
sovereign  judgments ;  and  in  another  sense  they  are 
fatherly  chastisements.  In  one  view,  they  are  punish- 
ments for  sin ;  and,  in  another  view,  they  are  tokens 
of  a  father's  love.  They  manifest  at  once  the 
righteous  Sovereign  and  the  benignant  Parent.  Jus- 
tice has  been  defined  to  be  goodness  regulated  by 
wisdom,  and  the  sovereign  relation  may  be  said  to  be 
the  parental  controlled  by  the  same  attribute.  It 
would,  however,  be  a  very  defective  view  of  the  Divine 
character,  to  exclude  the  idea  of  justice,  and  adopt 
the  bare  idea  of  goodness,  as  comprehensive  of  the 
whole  truth  about  God.  And  it  is  the  very  same 
defect  in  that  theory  which  regards  Him  simply  and 
exclusively  as  the  Parent  of  all.  It  is  a  gross  mis- 
representation of  the  Christian  atonement,  to  speak 
of  it  as  if  the  fatherly  character  of  God  was  there 
overshadowed  or  shut  out.  "Go  to  my  brethren," 
said  the  Apostle  and  High  Priest  of  our  profession, 
"  and  say  unto  them,  I  ascend  unto  my  Father,  and 
your  Father;  and  to  my  God  and  your  God."     It  is, 


OF    THE    BIBLE    EEDEMPTION.  237 

indeed,  in  the  atonement,  that  we  see  the  paternal 
relation  in  its  richest  elements  and  loveliest  manifesta- 
tion, not  dissociated  from  or  shrouded  by  the  regal, 
but  the  majesty  of  the  one  rendered  attractive  by  the 
love  of  the  other,  and  the  love  of  the  one  appearing 
the  more  grand  and  costly  in  the  union  with  the  other. 
"  Mercy  and  truth  meet  together,  righteousness  and 
peace  embrace  each  other."  We  behold  at  once 
"the  just  God  and  the  Saviour."  The  theology  of 
the  natural  religion  is  no  less  meagre  and  contracted 
than  that  of  the  revealed,  and  the  view  of  the  Divine 
character  as  the  God  of  providence,  is  no  less  partial 
than  the  view  of  Him  as  the  God  of  redemption, 
which  does  not  embrace  the  two-fold  relationship  of 
Jehovah  as  the  King  and  Father  of  his  people. 
Whether  we  contemplate  Him  as  seated  on  the  circle 
of  the  universe,  presiding  over  the  movements  of  the 
spheres,  and  managing  the  affairs  of  men ;  or,  as  mani- 
fested in  the  cross,  magnifying  His  law  and  bringing 
redemption  to  a  lost  world ;  we  do  not  contemplate 
Him  aright,  unless  it  be  in  the  blended  relations  of 
the  righteous  Sovereign  and  the  benignant  Parent. 
"The  Lord  reigneth;  let  the  earth  rejoice;  let  the 
multitude  of  isles  be  glad  thereof  Clouds  and  dark- 
ness are  round  about  him ;  righteousness  and  judgment 
are  the  habitation  of  his  throne." 

3d.  The  doctrine  of  dejpravity^  as  stated  in  Scripture 
or  applied  in  the  atonement,  is  not  a  whit  more 
aggi^avated  and  mysterious  than  the  actual  condition 
of  man.  The  Bible  doctrine  on  this  subject,  has  been 
denounced  as  dark  and  perplexing ;  but  it  is  not  more 


238  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

so  than  the  palpable  facts  that  come  under  observation 
and  experience.  To  hear  some  men  speak  about  the 
dark  and  mysterious  doctrines  of  Scripture,  you  would 
imagine  that,  without  the  pale  of  Christianity,  difficulty 
and  darkness  were  unknown,  that  all  was  unclouded 
sunshine,  comprehensible  and  plain.  Whereas,  it  is 
just  because  there  are  mysteries  in  nature,  that  there 
are  mysteries  in  revelation.  No  one  disputes  the 
existence  of  sin  in  the  world.  The  mountain  stands 
before  us,  however  different  may  be  the  estimates 
formed  of  its  origin  and  size.  But  some  would 
represent  its  existence  in  nature,  and  account  for  its 
presence  in  the  human  soul,  in  such  a  way  as  to  set 
the  natural  religion  over  against  the  revealed.  The 
conflict  takes  place  at  two  points.  The  Bible  teaches 
that  sin  is  an  element  of  positive  evil  in  the  heart, 
consisting  in  the  corruption  of  the  will,  and  that,  as 
a  depraved  force,  it  affects  all  the  mental  powers,  and 
manifests  itself  in  the  outward  conduct.  Opponents 
consider  sin  as  a  negative  thing,  consisting  rather  in 
the  defect  of  a  positive  good  than  in  the  presence  of 
a  positive  evil.  The  Bible  traces  all  human  transgress- 
ion up  to  the  inward  depraved  principle,  which  is 
strengthened  and  developed  by  outward  circumstances. 
The  objectors,  maintaining  the  original  goodness  of 
the  heart,  regard  sin  as  an  accident,  and  the  product 
of  external  forces  acting  upon  man's  constitution. 
There  it  is,  however,  in  the  heart  of  humanity,  account 
for  it  as  you  will. 

The  first  thing  we  affirm  respecting  it  is,  that  it  is 
not  represented  more  darkly  in  Scripture  than  it  exists 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  239 

actually  in  the  world.  There  is  not  a  darker  picture  of 
depravity  in  the  Bible  than  that  which  is  drawn  by  Paul 
in  his  epistle  to  the  Romans.  He  there  proves,  by  an 
induction  of  evidence,  that  mankind  are  deeply  and 
universally  depraved.  And  the  testimonies  of  his- 
torians, who  were  by  no  means  friendly  to  Christianity, 
may  be  appealed  to  in  proof  that  the  apostolic  de- 
scription is  not  darker  than  the  outward  reality.  Ex- 
perience and  observation  are  in  perfect  harmony  with 
scriptural  representations  on  this  point.  The  book 
declares  that  all  have  sinned,  and  the  world  sets  its 
seal  to  the  statement  as  true.  The  book  declares 
that  the  heart  is  deceitful,  and  what  man  of  self- 
reflection  will  deny  it?  The  plague  raged  not  less 
fearfully  in  the  city,  than  Daniel  Defoe  describes  it. 
The  desert  is  not  less  arid  and  cheerless  than  it  appears 
in  the  pages  of  the  traveller.  And  the  actual  state  of 
the  moral  nature  of  man,  before  better  influences  come 
down  upon  it,  is  no  less  dark  and  depraved,  than  it  is 
represented  in  scriptural  statements,  or  implied  in  the 
doctrine  of  atonement. 

But  we  assert,  further,  that  the  Bible  account  of 
the  origin  of  sin,  however  mysterious,  is  more  in 
accordance  with  fact  than  the  view  given  in  the 
opposite  argument.  The  doctrine  of  Scripture  is, 
that  all  men  have  been  involved  in  the  fall  of  their 
common  parent,  and  that,  in  consequence  of  the  first 
sin  of  the  first  man,  they  have  inherited  a  depraved 
nature.  Not  that  men  actually  sin  without  the  con- 
currence of  their  own  will,  but  that  the  principles  oi 
depravity  are  inherent  within   them.     This  we   hold 


240  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

to  be  more  philosopliically  true  than  the  explanation 
that  sin  is  an  accident,  the  result  of  external  agencies, 
a  thing  not  proceeding  from  the  soul  within  but  com- 
ing to  it  from  without.  It  is  true  that  we  cannot  detect 
depravity  till  some  time  after  the  birth  of  an  individ- 
ual, but  neither  can  we  detect  reason  or  the  rudiments 
of  a  moral  nature.  The  child,  in  process  of  time,  how- 
ever, gives  signs  of  the  existence  of  the  reasoning 
faculty,  and  of  the  moral  constitution,  and  contem- 
poraneously therewith,  does  it  manifest  tendencies  to 
evil.  Now,  as  has  been  often  remarked,  we  never 
ascribe  the  existence  of  reason  and  the  moral  sense 
to  education  or  to  any  external  influences.  They  may 
develop  them,  but  they  do  not  produce  them.  Men, 
in  all  circumstances,  manifest  reason  and  a  moral 
nature;  and  this  is  to  us  a  proof  that  they  are  in- 
herent in  the  human  constitution.  Men,  in  all  cir- 
cumstances, manifest  depraved  affections.  These 
circumstances  may  call  them  forth,  strengthen  them, 
or  even  counteract  them,  but  they  do  not  originate 
them,  and  this  we  take  to  be  a  proof  of  the  existence 
of  an  original  depraved  propensity.  The  uniform 
occurrence  of  moral  actions  is  not  a  stronger  evidence 
of  moral  nature,  than  the  uniform  occurrence  of 
wrong  moral  actions  is  an  evidence  of  a  corrupt  moral 
nature. 

It  is  somewhat  strange,  that  certain  reforming  pro- 
jectors, who  persist  in  maintaining  that  inherent 
depravity,  is  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  the  "dark 
creed"  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  all  the  evils  which 
afflict   man   are   to    be    traced    to    external    circum- 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  241 

stances  operating  on  his  mental  and  physical  con 
stitution,  should,  on  the  supposition  of  their  theory 
being  true,  never  have  succeeded, — in  those  genial 
climes  whither  they  have  removed,  and  amid  those 
favorable  circumstances  by  which  they  were  sur- 
rounded,— in  rearing  up  plants  without  spot  or  wrinkle 
or  any  such  thing.  They  have  had  their  Utopias, 
their  Icarias,  and  Harmony  Halls.  But  old  Adam 
has  always  proved  too  strong  for  young  Melancthon. 
The  power  of  inward  evil  has  sported  with  all  their 
fondly-cherished  schemes  to  subdue  it,  and  shown 
such  schemes  to  be  visionary  and  vain.  And,  it  is 
not  less  strange,  (on  the  supposition  of  the  truth 
of  the  theories  of  Parker  and  Newman,)  that,  not- 
withstanding the  alleged  virtue  of  the  "  absolute 
religion,"  and  the  "  spiritual  faculty,"  which  arc 
said  to  render  the  Gospel  unnecessary,  men,  un- 
influenced by  that  Gospel,  should  have  everywhere- 
continued  corrupt  and  corrupters.  But,  it  is  not 
strange,  on  the  belief  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  that 
man  is  radically  depraved,  that  the  principle  of  evil 
is  within,  and  that  out  of  the  heart  come  the  things 
which  defile  the  man.  This  doctrine,  as  we  have 
admitted,  is  dark  and  mysterious,  standing  boldly 
forth  as  it  does  on  the  Bible  page.  But  it  is  not  a 
whit  more  so  than  the  actual  condition  of  man  in 
the  world.  The  account  of  the  astounding  phenom- 
enon as  given  in  the  inspired  volume,  is,  however, 
vastly  more  in  accordance  with  observation  and 
experience,  than  any  opposite  theory.  And  we  ask, 
when  are  men  of  philosophical  pretensions  to  cease 

16 


242  •      SPIRITUALISM  ;     OR,    THE    DENIAL 

assuming,  or  how  long  is  tlae  world  to  tolerate  tlieir 
assumption,  that  darkness  and  mystery  belong  only 
to  the  theology  of  the  Gospel  which  they  disown,  and 
that  these  horrible  things  have  no  place  in  the 
theology  of  nature  of  which  they  profess  themselves 
the  disciples  and  friends  ? 

4th.  The  doctrine  of  pardon  on  the  ground  of  an 
atonement  is  neither  unreasonable  nor  inconsistent  tvith 
the  Paternity  of  God,  as  is  supposed.  We  assent  to 
the  remarks  of  the  eloquent  preacher,^  "  that  there 
is  in  this  doctrine  something  extremely  remote  from 
ordinary  apprehension,  apart  from  the  instruction 
derived  from  Holy  Writ.  That  one  of  the  human 
race,  by  submitting  to  an  ignominious  and  painful 
death,  should  be  the  moral  source  of  the  salvation  of 
an  innumerable  multitude  of  mankind,  and,  if  duly 
improved,  a  sufiicient  source  for  the  salvation  of  all, 
is  surely  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  of  the  Divine 
proceedings  with  regard  to  man.  Nothing  like  this 
has  ever  existed.  It  seems  to  stand  by  itself,  an  in- 
sulated department  of  Divine  Providence,  to  contain 
within  itself  a  method  of  acting  which  was  never 
seen  before,  and  will  never  be  repeated."  It  was 
a  mysterious  exigency,  altogether  unprecedented, 
that  had  to  be  met,  and  the  expedient  devised  by 
Infinite  wisdom  has  a  height  and  a  depth  that  pass 
knowledge.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  unique- 
and  unparalleled  nature  of  this  distinctive  act  of 
moral  mediation,  the  idea  of  moral  substitution  has 
a  founda  ion  in  nature,  and  pardon  through  a  mediator 

'  llobevt  Hall. 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  243 

is  a  principle  not  unfrequently  exemplified  in  history. 
Some  men  speak  under  a  kind  of  korror  at  this 
doctrine,  because  it  represents  the  God  and  Father 
of  mankind  as  inflicting  punishment  on  the  innocent, 
and  thus  reversing  all  our  ideas  of  moral  rectitude 
that  where  there  is  no  sin  there  should  be  no  suffering. 
But, — not  to  dwell  on  tho  assumption  involved  in  this 
objection,  that  the  objector  knew  all  the  ends  God 
had  in  view  in  the  work  of  the  atonement,  or  that  these 
ends  are  not  better  secured  by  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  than  they  could  have  been  in  any  other  way, — 
does  it  not  frequently  happen  in  God's  providential 
administration,  that  persons  are  involved  in  sufferings 
in  consequence  of  the  sins  of  others  in  the  com- 
mission of  which  they  had  no  part;  and  that  men, 
possessed  of  little  or  no  virtue  in  themselves,  have 
much  respect  shown  to  them,  and  many  benefits 
conferred  upon  them,  solely  on  account  of  the  virtues 
of  others  ?  Some  of  the  most  direful  calamities  that 
ever  fell  on  individuals  or  communities,  have  been 
the  consequence  of  the  wrong  doings  of  others,  of 
which  they  themselves  were  innocent.  And  some  of 
the  richest  blessings  that  ever  descended  upon  families 
or  nations,  may  be  traced  to  the  merit  and  suffering  of 
those  who,  for  righteousness'  sake,  perished  in  the  field, 
at  the  stake,  or  on  the  scaffold. 

In  such  cases  as  these,  we  see  the  existence  of  a 
principle,  which  is  manifested,  in  a  manner  altogether 
unparalleled,  in  the  Christian  redemption,  the  prin- 
ciple of  moral  substitution,  the  principle  of  conferring 
benefits  on  individuals  or  communities  from  a  reg-ard 


244  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OE,    THE    DENIAL 

to  tlie  merits  of  others,  and  of  the  innocent  suffering 
in  consequence  of  the  deeds  of  the  guilty.  And,  that 
this  principle  is  in  harmony  with  the  general  sen- 
timents of  mankind,  is  abundantly  testified  by  their 
religious  observances  even  in  lands  where  the  Gospel 
is  unknown.  It  is  altogether  unphilosophical,  to 
ascribe  any  permanent  and  universally  diffused  feelings 
and  sentiments  to  what  hflve  been  considered  a  few 
interested  classes  of  the  community.  '•  To  affirm, 
as  some  have  done,"  says  Isaac  Taylor,^  "  that  priests 
are  the  authors  of  religion  and  moral  sentiment,  is 
a  sort  of  upside-down  logic,  not  easily  understood. 
Surely  it  were  more  philosophical  to  invert  the  terms 
of  the  proposition,  and  to  affirm  that  religion  and 
moral  sentiment  are  the  authors  of  priests."  The 
altars  which  have  been  reared,  and  the  sacrifices 
which  have  been  offered,  in  every  age  and  quarter  of 
the  world,  show,  that  the  idea  of  vicarious  interposition 
has  its  foundation  in  the  constitution  of  nature. 
And  the  same  principle  is  evinced  in  cases,  uncon- 
nected with  religious  rites  and  observances,  of  the 
good  and  great  in  history  suffering  for  the  unworthy, 
and  the  virtues  of  such  illustrious  sufferers  being  so 
reckoned  to  others  as  that  on  account  of  them  un- 
deserved favors  have  been  bestowed.  We  never  look, 
in  anything  among  men,  for  a  parallelism  to  the 
amazingly  grand  fact  of  salvation  by  the  interposition 
and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  the  Highest.  But,  in 
such  cases  as  those  to  which  we  have  adverted,  we 
see,    be   the   actions    blameworthy   or   commendable, 

'   Man  Responsible,  p.  8. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  245 

that  the  notions  of  vicarious  sufFerino:  and  of  treating 
the  undeserving  kindly  for  the  sake  of  the  deserving, 
are  not  so  strange  and  unnatural  as  some  persons,  in 
objecting  to  the  atonement,  would  seem  to  suppose. 

It  was  one  of  the  unworthy  expedients  of  the  old 
deistical  writers,  and  the  same  is  not  unfrequently 
resorted  to  in  more  modern  times  to  misrepresent 
and  disfigure  the  atonement,  and  then  hold  it  up  to 
the  execration  of  mankind.  The  following  is  a 
specimen  from  Bolingbroke:  "Let  us  suppose  a 
great  prince,  governing  a  wicked  and  rebellious 
people,  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  punish  but  thinks 
fit  to  pardon  them.  But  he  orders  his  only  and  well 
beloved  son  to  be  put  to  death,  to  expiate  their  sins, 
and  satisfy  his  royal  vengeance.  Would  this  pro- 
ceeding (asks  the  writer)  appear  to  the  eye  of  reason, 
and  in  the  unprejudiced  light  of  nature,  wise,  or  just, 
or  good  ?  No  man  dares  to  say  that  it  would,  except 
it  be  a  divine."^  No  person  deserving  the  name  of 
a  divine  but  would  cry  out  on  the  monstrous  in- 
justice as  loudly  as  the  philosopher  himself  But  is 
such  a  case  parallel  to  the  Christian  atonement  ? 
Far  from  it.  It  fails  in  two  things,  and  failing  in 
these,  the  whole  is  vitiated.  In  the  first  place,  the 
highest  injustice  would  have  been  done  ,to  the  sub- 
stitute, in  the  case  supposed ;  whereas,  no  injury 
whatever  was  done  to  Christ,  for,  with  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  what  he  would  have  to  endure,  his 
undertaking  was  entirely  voluntary.  He  is  repre- 
sented  in  the  ancient  oracle  as  saying,  when  about  to 
'   Leland's  Deistical  Writers 


246  spiritualism;  or  the  denial 

enter  on  the  work  of  mediation,  "Lo!  I  come,  I 
delight  to  do  thy  will,  0  my  God;"  and,  on  earth  he 
declared,  "  no  man  taketh  my  life  from  me.  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
again."  In  the  second  place,  no  sentiment  is  more 
derogatory  to  the  Divine  character,  and  more  op- 
posed to  the  declarations  of  Scripture,  than  that 
which  represents  God  as  naturally  implacable  to- 
wards the  human  race,  and  as  being  appeased  by 
the  interposition  of  his  beloved  Son.  The  sacred 
penman,  and  the  adherents  of  the  doctrine  of  re- 
demption, always  speak  of  the  mission  and  death 
of  Christ,  not  as  the  cause,  but  as  the  effect  of  the 
Father's  love,  not  as  rendering  Him  merciful  towards 
us,  but  as  the  divinely-appointed  way  of  manifesting 
his  self-moved  benignity  to  the  guilty.  What  can  be 
plainer  than  the  golden  passage  in  John,  "  God  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life."  The  paternal  theory,  as  we 
have  seen,  embraces  only  one  aspect  of  the  twofold 
relation  in  which  the  Supreme  Being  stands  to  men ; 
it  separates  the  glories  that  blend  in  the  Divine 
character,  and  overlooks  one  of  them  as  if  it  had  no 
existence.  Whereas,  it  is  the  pre-eminent  excellence 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  atonement  that  it  is 
comprehensive  of  the  whole.  In  it,  we  see  at  once 
the  righteous  Governor  of  the  world  maintaining  the 
integrity  of  his  just  and  good  laws,  and  the  benignant 
Parent,  in  perfect  consistency  with  the  holiness  of 
his   character   and    the  honor   of  his  administration, 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  247 

extending  mercy  to  his  rebellious  children.  We 
behold  in  the  theory  of  the  atonement,  what  we  fail 
to  perceive  in  the  paternal  theory,  a  high  regard  to 
the  cause  of  moral  right  and  to  the  general  interests 
of  the  universe,  and  an  altogether  extraordinary 
manifestation  of  Divine  benevolence  to  guilty  man. 
It  speaks  loudly  in  behalf  of  its  truthfulness,  that 
it  harmonizes  so  wondrously  the  Divine  relations 
of  sovereign  and  parent ;  exhibiting,  in  the  world's 
great  exigency,  righteousness  inviolable  and  uncom- 
promising to  be  the  girdle  of  God's  throne,  and  love, 
unexampled  and  ineffable,  going  forth  from  his  heart. 
The  angels  embraced  the  blended  glories  of  king  and 
father,  when  they  sung  over  the  plains  of  Bethlehem, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace, 
good-will  toward  men." 

But  this  is  mysterious  doctrine !  As  if,  by  raising 
up  mystery  as  a  bugbear,  men  are  to  be  scared  away 
from  it.  We  reply  to  the  taunt  by  saying,  there  is  a 
mystery  no  less  inscrutable  and  astounding  before 
your  eyes,  a  mystery  which  has  called  this  other  forth 
— the  mystery  of  moral  evil.  Solve  that  mystery,  or 
deny  it,  before  you  urge  mystery  as  an  objection 
against  the  Divine  provision  that  has  been  made  to 
meet  it.  It  is  the  mystery  of  man's  fall  that  has 
occasioned  the  mystery  of  man's  redemption.  "  With- 
out controversy,  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness: 
God  was  manifested  in  the  flesh."  But,  "herein 
he  hath  abounded  toward  us  in  all  wisdom  and 
prudence." 

5  th.  ll\iQ  doctrine  of  Divine  ^??J^^fe?^ce  as  indispensably 


248  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

necessary  to  regenerate  the  souls  of  men^  is  a  reasonable 
doctrine;  at  variance  neither  with  the  dictates  of 
nature  nor  the  principles  of  sound  philosophy.  It  de- 
serves notice,  that  while  the  earlier  Unitarians  shrunk 
from  boldly  impugning  this  article  of  the  evangelical 
creed,  their  successors  generally  ridicule  and  deny  it ;  or, 
in  accordance  with  the  "  School  of  Progress,"  merge  it 
in  the  very  commonest  natural  influence.  Men  may 
think  to  construct  a  religious  philosophy  without  it, 
but  it  requires  little  consideration  to  see,  that  of  all 
philosophies  it  is  the  most  unphilosophical.  It  has 
been  already  shown,  that,  to  be  thoroughly  consistent 
in  denying  the  intervention  of  God  in  preserving  and 
ruling  the  universe,  men  must  take  up  their  position 
in  atheism  and  deny  the  existence  of  God  himself 
And  it  may  as  justly  be  affirmed,  that,  to  be  thoroughly 
consistent  in  denying  a  Divine  influence  on  the  soul, 
men  must  either  hold  that  the  soul  exists  indepen- 
dently of  God,  or  is  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  his 
operations.  The  possibility,  not  to  say  the  probability 
or  actual  certainty,  of  the  Almighty  Maker  exerting 
an  influence  on  the  material  worlds,  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  and  properties  which  he  has  impressed 
on  them,  being  granted ;  it  cannot,  with  any  preten- 
sions to  philosophy,  be  denied,  that  God  may  exercise 
an  influence  on  the  souls  which  he  has  formed,  so  as 
not  to  interfere  with  their  free  agency  and  responsi- 
bility. No  one  will  venture  to  assert  that  it  is  more 
difficult  to  conceive  how  the  Spirit  of  God  operates  on 
mind,  than  how  he  operates  on  matter.  Yea,  we  will 
venture  to  say  that  it  is  more   easy  to  conceive  the 


OF   THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  249 

action  of  mind  on  mind,  than  the  action  of  miod  od 
matter.'  Many  of  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman 
philosophers,  as  has  often  been  shown  bj  quotations 
from  their  writings,  admitted  not  only  the  possibility 
but  the  necessity  and  reality  of  Divine  influences  on 
the  mind  for  the  attainment  and  practice  of  virtue. 
Seneca  declares,  "it  is  God  that  comes  to  men,  yea 
more  he  enters  into  them,  for  no  mind  becomes  truly 
good  but  by  his  assistance."  Plato  has  remarked, 
'.'  that  virtue  is  not  to  be  taught  but  by  the  assistance 
of  God."  And  he  introduces  Socrates  as  declaring, 
"  that  wheresoever  virtue  comes,  it  seems  to  be  the 
fruit  of  a  divine  dispensation.''  These  considerations 
show,  not  only  that  the  exercise  of  a  divine  influence 
on  the  mind  is  possible,  but  that  the  want  of  it  has 
been  felt,  and  the  reality  of  it  admitted,  by  the  greatest 
m-en  living  under  the  glimmering  light  of  nature. 
This  augurs  something  in  favor  of  its  reasonableness 
and  accordance  with  sound  philosophy.  And  surely, 
if  we  admit  a  supernatural  intervention  in  revealing 
Christianity  at  the  first ;  it  is  more  in  accordance  with 
right  reason  to  believe,  that  it  makes  its  way  through 
this  world,  rife  as  it  is  with  powerful  principles  that 
are  hostile  to  it,  accompanied  with  an  influence  from 
on  high,  than  that  it  has  been  left  to  struggle  alone, 
unaided  by  the  spiritual  energy  which  gave  it  birth. 

But  the  objection  is,  that  it  interferes  with  the 
moral  freedom  of  man.  As  if  an  influence  coming 
from  without  could  not  but  destroy  or  impair  the 
freedom  of  the  will  within.  It  is  a  sufficient  reply  to 
this  objection,  that  the  operation  of  such  an  external 


250  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

cause  no  more  implies  interference  witli  human 
liberty  than  the  operation  of  any  other  external 
causes.  One  man  exerts  an  influence  upon  another 
by  his  speech  or  example,  without  it  ever  being  sup- 
posed that  the  moral  freedom  of  that  other  is  inter- 
fered with.  The  orator  in  the  senate,  or  from  the 
pulpit,  influences  men  to  change  their  opinions  and 
follow  a  different  line  of  conduct,  and.no  one  ever 
imagines  that  the  responsibility  of  men  is  thereby 
lessened.  We  are  thrown  into  society,  or  brought 
into  contact  with  the  scenes  of  external  nature,  and 
passively  receive  impressions  from  the  objects  that 
surround  us,  but  we,  nevertheless,  feel  that  our  free 
will  is  not  interfered  with  in  avoiding  or  pursuing  any 
train  of  thought  or  course  of  conduct  to  which  they 
would  lead  us.  And  why  should  it  be  thought  to  be 
otherwise  with  an  influence  coming  not  from  earth 
but  from  heaven,  not  from  objects  that  are  natural 
but  divine  and  spiritual  ?  Men,  it  has  been  remarked, 
are  passive  in  receiving  natural  light  and  bodily 
strength  from  God,  and  yet  free  and  active  in  making 
use  of  them.  And  so  it  may  be  conceived  that  men 
derive  spiritual  light  and  strength  from  the  same 
source,  and  enjoy  their  moral  freedom  in  like  manner. 
If  it  be  objected  that  the  cases  are  not  parallel,  we 
answer  that  they  are  perfectly  parallel  in  the  point 
for  which  they  have  been  adduced,  viz.,  non-inter- 
ference with  man's  moral  liberty.  We  are  conscious 
that  the  influence  exerted  on  our  minds  by  human 
spirits,  is  according  to  the  laws  of  our  moral  consti 
tution.     We  feel  that  influence,  and  nevertheless  we 


OF    THE    BIBLE    EEDEMPTION.  251 

are  conscious  that  we  are  morally  free.  la  like  man- 
ner, the  subjects  of  Divine  influence  know  that  it  is 
God  that  worketh  in  them,  and  yet  they  feel,  too,  that 
they  are  free  to  choose  the  good  and  avoid  the  evil 

Such  are  the  aspects  in  which  the  doctrine  is  pre- 
sented in  Scripture,  and  in  that  orthodox  creed  which 
is  objected  against.  It  is  obviously  implied  in  those 
inspired  statements  which  speak  of  men  resisting  and 
quenching  the  Spirit's  influences,  that  these  influences 
do  not  in  the  least  interfere  with  man's  free  agency, 
nor  diminish  but  rather  increase  his  responsibility. 
David,  conscious  of  his  moral  freedom,  meditated  on 
his  comparatively  small  and  dark  Bible,  while  he  lifted 
up  his  heart  to  the  heavens  and  said,  "  open  thou  mine 
eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy 
law."  Paul  gave  the  exhortation,  "work  out  your  own 
salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  that 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 
pleasure."  At  this  point,  then,  the  Scripture  doctrine, 
however  inscrutable  otherwise,  accords  with  human 
consciousness,  and  with  the  principles  of  sound 
philosophy.  We  attempt  not,  and  wish  not,  to  strip 
it  of  its  mysteriousness.  But  mystery  here,  is  not 
mystification.  And,  as  Dr.  Vaughan  remarks,^  "the 
mystery  is,  that  men  should  be  in  a  condition  to  need 
regeneration,  not  that  such  being  the  fact,  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  should  be  sent  to  regenerate  them." 

In  farther  confirmation  of  the  reality  and  reason- 
ableness of  this  doctrine,  we  appeal  to  three  unques- 

*  The  Age  and  Christianity,  p.  299 


252  spiritualism;  or  the  denial 

tionable  facts.  The  first  is,  tliat  where  the  Gospel 
is  unknown,  men  are  morally  degraded  and  vile. 
Whether  we  look  at  the  ancient  or  modern  heathen 
world,  the  testimony  given  is  the  same,  that  men,  with- 
out Christianity,  are  unregenerate  and  destitute  of 
moral  loveliness.  Let  any  one  read  Tholuck's  admir- 
able treatise  "on  the  Nature  and  Moral  Influence 
of  Heathenism,  especially  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,"  and  he  will  be  convinced,  if  unconvinced 
before,  of  the  truth  of  the  proposition  which  he  seeks 
to  demonstrate, — that  "heathenism,  as  such,  did  not 
restore,  but  profaned  the  image  of  God  in  man." 
"History,"  observes  Maclaurin,^  "  showeth  the  weak 
and  contemptible  efi&cacy  of  the  sublimest  philosophy 
of  the  heathens,  when  it  is  encountered  with  inveterate 
corruptions  or  violent  temptations.  How  many  of 
them  that  spake  of  virtue  like  angels,  yet  lived  in  a 
manner  like  brutes :  whereas,  in  all  ages,  poor  Chris- 
tian plebeians,  unpolished  by  learning,  but  earnest  in 
prayer,  and  depending  upon  grace,  have,  in  comparison 
of  these  others,  lived  rather  like  angels  than  men; 
and  shown  such  an  invincible  steadfastness  in  the  prac- 
tice of  virtue,  as  shameth  all  the  philosophy  in  the 
world."  Plato  represents  Socrates  as  saying  in  his 
discourse  with  Alcibiades,  "methinks,  as  Homer  says 
that  Minerva  removed  the  mist  from  the  eyes  of  Dio- 
mede,  in  order  that  he  might  well  distinguish  God 
from  man,  so  it  is  needful  that  He  (the  heavenly 
teacher),  first  removing  from  my  soul  the  mist  which 

'  Maclaurin's  Works,  p.  7S,  (Collins'  edition.) 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  253 

is  now  present,  should  tlien  impart  means  by  which 
thou  shalt  know  good  and  evil ;  for  now  thou  dost  not 
appear  to  me  capalle  of  this.''  And  the  absence  of  life 
in  modern  heathenism  to  renovate  and  raise  up  man, 
and  the  presence  and  power  of  it  in  the  Gospel,  are 
strikingly  illustrated  in  the  veritable  records  of  Chris- 
tian missions.  "Why  do  you  believe  in  the  Divine 
origin  of  Christianity?"  said  an  officer  of  a  British 
ship  to  some  converted  islanders  of  the  South  Sea. 
"  We  look,"  replied  one  of  them,  "  at  the  power  with 
which  it  has  been  attended  in  effecting  the  entire 
overthrow  of  idolatry  among  us ;  and  which,  we  believe, 
no  human  means  could  have  induced  us  to  abandon."' 
If,  over  against  all  this,  men  will  set  the  corruptions, 
which  have  existed  in  the  presence  of  Christianity, 
and  assert  that  the  moral  pollution  within  the  pale  of 
the  church  has  not  been  less  than  within  the  province 
of  heathenism,  we  reply  in  the  words  of  Tholuck, 
that,  "The  question  is  not,  in  what  the  Christian, 
who  is  merely  baptized  with  water^  is  better  than  the 
heathen,  but  the  one  who  is  baptised  with  the  Spirit 
and  with  fire,  .  .  .  Vain  would  be  the  task  of  him  who 
would  prove,  that  the  mass  of  weeds  which  have  luxu 
riated  within  the  pale  of  the  Christian  church  from 
the  beginning,  might  have  sprung  from  the  root  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ."^  It  can  be  shown  that  the  Di- 
vine life  has  been  wanting  wherever  a  native  or  bap- 
tized heathenism  prevails,  but  it  cannot  be  shown 
that  a  spiritual   deadness   has   been  prevalent  where 

'  The  Bible  not  of  Man.     By  Dr.  Spring,  p.  156. 

'  Nature  and  Moral  Influence  of  Heathenism,  pp.  6,  7. 


254  epiRiTUALisM ;  or,  the  denial 

tlie  Gospel,  in  its  purity  and  simplicity,  has  been  be- 
lieved and  obeyed.  This  of  itself  is  a  strong  presump- 
tive proof  that  a  Divine  influence  accompanies,  in 
a  greater  or  less  degree,  the  truths  of  Christianity 
among  men. 

The  second  fact,  to  which  we  appeal,  is,  that  where 
Christianity  is  exhibited,  stripped  of  all  its  grand  dis- 
tinctive peculiarities  as  a  system  of  atonement  and 
spiritual  regeneration,  and  reduced  to  a  kind  of  re- 
ligious philosophy,  it  is  seen  to  be  destitute  of  life  and 
morally  impotent  to  regenerate  men.  It  is  "  Chris- 
tianity in  the  frigid  zone."  It  contains  no  elements  of 
truth  fitted  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  the  ungodly,  or 
to  interest  the  heart  of  the  virtuous.  In  so  far  as  doc- 
trinal truth  is  concerned,  it  is  a  negative  rather  than 
positive ;  and  Christianity  in  its  hands,  have  dwin- 
dled down  to  little  more  than  a  code  of  ethics,  is  sup- 
plied with  no  power  to  counteract  the  stubborn  prin- 
ciple of  depravity,  and  to  infuse  a  holy,  heavenly  life 
into  the  soul.  Having  shorn  the  Gospel  of  its  mys- 
teries, it  has,  in  a  great  measure,  deprived  it  of  its 
strength,  and  left  it  to  move  a  cold,  meagre,  uninfliu- 
ential  thing  among  men.  Let  it  be  carried,  accord- 
ingly, into  the  lanes  and  hovels  of  our  cities  where 
ignorance  and  vice  hold  their  ancient  reign ;  or  let  it, 
if  it  has  the  zeal,  cross  the  seas  and  be  brought  to 
bear  on  the  malimant  and  inveterate  forms  of  hea- 
thenism; — and  it  isalike  powerless  in  reclaiming  the 
vicious,  and  in  turning  men  from  idols  to  serve  the 
living  and  true  God.  It  is  by  their  fruits  that  we  are 
to  judge  of  systems  as  well  as  of  men.     And  may  it 


OP    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  255 

not  be  asked,  (without  breach  of  charity,)  is  the  power 
of  godliness  manifested,  does  a  lofty,  unearthly  piety 
prevail,  are  the  duties  of  religion  generally  attended 
to,  do  works  of  faith  and  labors  of  love  begin  and 
progress,  do  real  conversions  to  God  and  a  radical 
reformation  of  heart  and  life  take  place,  under  a 
system  of  religious  teaching  that  expunges  from  its 
creed  the  doctrines  of  atonement  and  Divine  in- 
fluence ?  Is  there  not  rather  a  great  congeniality  of 
spirit  between  this  system  of  an  impoverished  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  scepticism  and  indifference  of  men 
who  wish  to  retain  an  outward  form  of  religion, 
while  destitute  of  its  inner  life  ?  Dr.  Priestley 
honestly  acknowledged  that  infidelity  and  unitarian- 
ism  were  not  very  far  from  each  other.  The  little 
state  of  Geneva,  under  the  predominance  of  such 
principles — the  progress  of  which  afforded  such  de- 
light to  D'Alembert  and  Voltaire — was  characterized 
by  its  depravity,  its  neglect  of  public  and  domestic 
religion,  and  the  dissoluteness  of  its  manners  in 
general.  And  though  the  system,  in  the  hands  of 
some  of  its  chiefs,  has  recently  begun  to  assume  a 
more  spiritual  aspect,  and  "to  represent  the  progress  of 
man  m  tlieology^^''  it  is  not  the  spiritualism  of  the 
revelation  that  has  come  from  above,  but  that  of  the 
idealistic  philosophy ;  and,  being  as  destitute  as  ever 
of  the  great  distinctive  elements  of  the  Gospel,  it  is 
as  ineffectual  to  make  men  holy  and  happy.  But  it 
is  of  little  consequence  what  shape  systems  may 
assume,  or  what  name  their  abettors  may  take, — go 
forth  as  they  may,  avowing  themselves  to  be  religious 


256  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

teachers,  so  long  as  tliey  have  the  corruptions  of  the 
heart  to  contend  with,  they  will  be  seen  to  be  vision- 
ary and  powerless,  and  will  leave  the  race,  as  similar 
systems  have  left  it,  depraved  and  unrenewed,  be- 
cause they  have  not  the  Spirit.  And  this  we  take 
to  be  another  presumptive  proof  of  the  reality  and 
reasonableness  of  the  doctrine  of  Divine  influence. 

The  third  fact,  to  which  we  appeal,  is,  that  where- 
ever  the  Gospel  has  been  influential  in  working  a 
radical  change  on  masses  of  men,  or  in  adorning  the 
individual  character  with  the  beauties  of  holiness, 
strong  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  Divine  influence  has 
existed  in  the  minds  of  its  teachers  and  disciples.  It 
was  so  in  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel  age.  The 
whole  machinery  of  means  had  been  completed,  the 
atonement  had  been  finished,  the  apostles  had  been 
chosen  and  instructed,  the  Lord  had  risen  from  the 
grave  and  ascended  up  on  high, — but  life  in  the  wheels 
was  wanting,  and  no  remarkable  success  followed  the 
movements  of  the  moral  machinery,  till  a  supernat- 
ural influence  came  down  from  heaven.  The  first 
teachers  of  Christianity  waited  in  expectation  of  such 
an  influence.  It  descended,  according  to  the  promise 
of  their  Lord,  and  they  had  power  in  converting, 
sanctifying,  and  saving  men.  Paul  and  his  fellow- 
laborers  never  fail  to  acknowledge,  in  any  distin- 
guished success  that  attended  their  preaching,  the 
presence  and  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  a 
similar  devout  recognition  of  the  regenerating  Spirit, 
has  been  made,  in  every  succeeding  epoch  of  revival 
and  missionary  achievement.     It  was  so  at   the  Re- 


OF   THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  257 

formation  when  the  Gospel  trumpet  sounded  anew 
and  awoke  the  nations.  It  was  so  in  the  times  of 
the  good  and  brave  Puritans,  men  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy,  and  who  were  instrumental  in  bring- 
ing about  an  age  of  strong  faith  and  reviving  earnest- 
ness. It  was  so  in  the  age  of  Whitefield,  and  Wesley, 
and  Romaine,  men  born  to  summon  the  dead  to  life, 
and  quicken  again  the  things  that  were  ready  to  die. 
It  has  been  so  in  the  brilliant  successes  that  have 
crowned  modern  missions,  and  in  the  times  of 
refreshing  that  have  ever  and  anon  come  upon  the 
church  of  God.  The  most  honored  instruments  in 
advancing  the  world's  regeneration  have  been  persons 
who  had  firm  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  the  regenerating 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  a  like  testimony 
is  obtained,  on  perusing  the  memoirs,  or  in  mingling 
in  the  society,  of  eminent  private  Christians.  The 
choicest  spirits  of  our  race,  whether  in  the  public  or 
retired  walks  of  life,  whether  standing  forth  before 
the  world  and  battling  with  its  vices  and  errors,  or 
shedding  noiselessly  a  hallowed  influence  in  the 
domestic  circle,  have  been  men  who  looked  up  to 
God  for  the  high  life  of  the  soul,  and  for  success  to 
their  benignant  labors. 

This  doctrine  has  often  been  stigmatized  as  chimer- 
ical and  visionary.  But  such  epithets  are  misapplied, 
unless  they  are  kept  to  brand  projects  and  systems 
which  count  on  the  world's  regeneration  while  un- 
accompanied with  a  power  that  can  overcome  the 
world's  depravity.     "  Their  work,"  says  John  Foster,' 

'  Foster's  Essays,  p.  173, 
17 


\ 


258  spiritualism;  or,  the  denial 

"  is  befc»re  them ;  the  scene  of  moral  disorder  pre- 
sents to  them  the  plagues  which  they  are  to  stopj 
the  mountain  which  they  are  to  remove,  the  torrent 
which  they  are  to  divert,  the  desert  which  they  are 
to  clothe  in  verdure  and  bloom.  Let  them  make 
their  experiment,  and  add  each  his  page  to  the 
humiliating  records  in  which  experience  contemns 
the  folly  of  elated  imagination."  The  world's  regen- 
eration, meanwhile,  goes  on.  And  it  must  go  on, 
with  the  same  system  of  moral  means,  and  accom 
panied  by  the  same  heavenly  energy,  (though  it  may 
be  with  greater  potency,)  as  it  has  proceeded  hitherto, 
until  the  glorious  consummation  shall  have  come, 
when  voices  in  heaven  will  be  heard  saying,  "  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ." 

6th.  The  charge  of  gloominess  which  opponents 
bring  against  the  doctrines  of  redemption^  is  unfounded. 
Some  men  are  incessantly  speaking  of  these  doctrines 
as  if  they  tended  to  hang  the  world  in  mourning, 
and  to  repress  every  genial  impulse  of  the  soul. 
They  taunt  us,  in  no  measured  terms,  with  the 
"  dark  and  horrible  creed  of  depravity,"  as  if  this 
article  were  a  shade  darker  in  the  Gospel  than  in  the 
book  of  nature.  The  hideous  thing  has  its  origin 
in  the  world,  not  in  the  Scripture,  and  it  is  dark  in 
the  one  just  because  it  is  dark  in  the  other.  They 
taunt  us  with  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice  and  atonement 
as  if  it  clothed  the  Divine  Being  with  the  most 
unamiable  attributes.  But  we  repel  the  taunt  as  a 
gross  misrepresentation,   and  maintain  the  atonement 


OF    THE   BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  259 

of  the  Gosp{il  to  be  the  most  illustrious  manifestation 
of  Him  who  is  at  once  inflexibly  just,  immaculately 
holy,  and  inconceivably  kind.  They  taunt  us  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  influence  as  implying  that 
man  is  unequal  to  his  duties  and  destiny,  as  inter- 
fering with  his  moral  freedom,  and  tending  to 
unnerve  all  his  energies.  But  we'  reply  that  man's 
moral  impotency  is  a  fact  that  lies  within  the  range  of 
observation  and  experience,  that  Divine  influences  no 
more  necessarily  interfere  with  his  moral  freedom  than 
other  external  influences,  and  that  the  doctrine,  scrip- 
turally  understood,  instead  of  unnerving,  rouses  and 
quickens  the  energies  with  which  man  has  been  en- 
dowed. And  not  only  do  the  doctrines  of  redemp- 
tion, abstractedly  considered,  falsify  the  charge  under 
consideration ;  but  the  fact  is  undeniable,  that  persons 
in  every  age  who  have  yielded  themselves  up  to  the 
influence  of  these  doctrines  have  generally  been  the 
best  and  happiest  of  men.  The  tree  is  known  by  its 
fruits.  In  rebutting  the  charge  of  gloominess,  then,  we 
appeal  to  palpable  testimony.  The  power  and  charac- 
ter of  principles  are  especially  manifested  in  circum- 
stances of  fierce  opposition  and  severe  trial.  In  such 
circumstances  were  the  early  Christians  placed,  men 
who  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul  in  reference  to 
the  doctrines  of  redemption,  and  to  them  we  appeal 
for  evidence  of  their  power  to  elevate  man  above  his 
depraved  condition,  and  to  assimilate  him  to  the 
holiness  and  happiness  of  heaven.  They  gladly  re- 
ceived the  word — the  word  about  the  person  and  work 
of  Him  who  had  suffered  and  died  the  Just  One  in 


260  SPIRITUALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

the  room  of  the  unjust, — thej  continued  daily  with 
one  accord  in  the  temple,  and  did  eat  their  meat  with 
gladness  and  singleness  of  heart ;  they  departed  from 
the  councils,  whither  they  had  been  summoned,  re- 
joicing that  they  were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for 
Christ ;  in  the  prisons  into  which  they  had  been  cast, 
they  prayed  at  midnight  and  sung  praises  to  the  God 
of  heaven  ;  and,  of  the  generality  of  primitive  believers, 
Peter  could  say,  when  speaking  of  their  Lord,  "  whom 
having  not  seen  ye  love,  in  whom,  though  now  ye  see 
him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  unspeak- 
able and  full  of  glory."  Paul  was  no  dreaming 
visionary,  no  weak  enthusiast,  but  a  man  of  towering, 
intellect  and  acute  powers  of  reasoning,  and  yet  who 
ever  grasped  these  doctrines  more  firmly,  and  what  a 
well  of  joy  sprung  up  within  him  under  their  influence. 
"  I  would  to  God,"  said  he  to  king  Agrippa,  "  that 
not  only  thou,  but  also  all  that  hear  me  this  day, 
were  both  almost,  and  altogether  such  as  I  am^  except 
these  bonds." 

There  have  been,  and  may  be,  many  melancholy 
Christians;  but,  passing  over  the  fact  that  all  the 
melancholy  in  the  world  is  not  to  be  found  within 
the  pale  of  the  church,  it  requires  little  philosophy 
to  perceive  that  that  melancholy  is  no  part  of  their 
Christianity.  It  may  be  resolved  into  a  natural 
gloomy  temperament,  into  weak  faith,  into  partial 
views  of  divine  truth,  or  into  a  want  of  devotedness 
in  the  life ,  but  the  Scripture  says,  and  the  cross  says, 
'it  is  not  in  me.'  Solemnity  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  gloom ;  seriousness  and  joy  are  quite  compatible. 


OF    THE    BIBLE    REDEMPTION.  261 

Hume,  sporting  on  his  death-bed,  was  liker  a  fool 
than  a  philosopher.  The  world  in  which  we  dwell  is 
fitted  to  make  men  grave  and  thoughtful.  But,  it 
may  be  unhesitatingly  af&rmed,  that  the  believers  in 
the  atonement  are  not  less  sensible  to  the  grand  and 
beautiful  in  nature,  and  not  less  capable  of  appro- 
priating to  themselves  the  good  that  is  to  be  found  in 
the  world,  than  any  other  class  of  men.  Yea,  we  go 
beyond  this,  in  asserting  that  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  is  better  fitted  than  any  other  to  expand  every 
intellectual  power  and  to  purify  and  strengthen  every 
moral  feeling,  and  that  in  the  view  of  the  mind  in 
whom  it  dwells,  creation  is  the  more  radiant  and 
lovely,  and  God,  even  our  own  God,  "  sits  enthroned 
on  the  riches  of  the  universe."  The  recorded  expe- 
rience of  Jonathan  Edwards  has,  in  some  degree, 
been  the  experience  of  many,  who,  being  originally 
endowed  with  susceptibilities  to  receive  impressions 
from  external  nature,  have  had  the  eyes  of  their 
understanding  enlightened  at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 
But  we  appeal  specially  to  it  as  an  illustration  of  a 
mind,  second  to  none  in  acuteness  and  vigor,  hold- 
ing with  a  strong  faith  the  doctrines  of  redemption 
in  what  some  men  count  all  their  repulsiveness,  and 
yet  sunning  himself  as  it  were,  amid  the  light  and 
beauty  of  God's  world.  "The  appearance  of  every- 
thing," says  he,  in  speaking  of  the  influence  produced 
on  his  mind  by  the  clearer  views  which  he  had  ob- 
tained of  the  work  of  Christ,  "  the  appearance  of 
everything  was  altered;  there  seemed  to  be,  as  it 
were,  a  calm,  sweet  cast,  or  appearance  of  divine  glory, 


262  SPIRITUALISM. 

in  almost  everything.  God's  excellency,  his  wisdom, 
his  purity,  and  love,  seemed  to  appear  in  everything ; 
in  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  in  the  clouds,  and  blue 
sky;  in  the  grass,  flowers,  and  trees;  in  the  water 
and  all  nature ;  which  used  greatly  to  fix  my  mind.  I 
often  used  to  sit  and  view  the  moon  for  a  long  time, 
and  in  the  day  spent  much  time  in  viewing  the  clouds 
and  sky,  to  behold  the  sweet  glory  of  God  in  these 
things;  in  the  meantime  singing  forth,  with  a  low 
voice,  my  contemplations  of  the  Creator  and  Re- 
deemer." * 

"  He  looks  abroad  into  the  varied  field 
Of  nature,  and,  thougli  poor  perhaps,  compared 
With  those  whose  mansions  glitter  in  his  sight, 
Calls  the  delightful  scenery  all  his  own. 
His  are  the  mountains,  and  the  valleys  his, 
And  the  resj^lendent  rivers.     His  to  enjoy 
With  a  propriety  that  none  can  feel, 
But  who,  with  filial  confidence  inspired, 
Can  lift  to  heaven  an  unpresumptuous  eye, 
And  smiling  say — '  My  Father  made  them  all !' " 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    DENIAL    OF    MAn's    RESPONSIBILITY;    OR 
INDIFFERENTISM. 

A  diluted  kind  of  scepticism — Not  necessarily  implying  open 
hostility  to  the  generally -received  body  of  truth — A  weakened 
sense  of  responsibility,  or  an  actual  denial  of  it,  lies  at  the  bottom 
of  indifferentism — Indifferentism  on  the  Continent — Remarks  of 
Dr.  Krummacher — Continental  Churches — Characterizes  much  of 
our  own  literature — Man's  responsibility  for  his  dispositions, 
opinions,  and  conduct,  maintained : — A  matter  of  Consciousness — 
Rests  on  the  fact  of  man's  free  agency — Measured  by  ability  and 
privilege — Remains  indestructible  amid  all  objections  from  original 
temperament  and  external  influences  —  Phrenology  —  Case  of 
Alexander  the  Sixth — Men  individually,  and  societies  in  general, 
advance  morally,  in  proportion  as  the  sense  of  responsibility  is 
high. 

In  tliis  case,  no  hostile  attitude  to  the  generally-re- 
ceived body  of  truth  may  be  taken.  The  doctrines 
respecting  the  Divine  existence,  personality,  provi- 
dential government,  and  the  Bible  redemption,  may 
theoretically  be  admitted,  but  there  is  a  want  of  stern 
fidelity  to  these  doctrines.  The  truth  is  not,  like  a 
fortress,  stoutly  assailed  and  bravely  defended.  But 
it  happens,  either  that  those  who  are  without  pass  by 
and  turn  toward  it  a  look  of  indifference ;  or  that  some 


264  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

of  its  professed  guardians  would  sliake  liands  alike 
with  friends  and  foes,  persuade  them  that  their 
variance  is  a  mere  trifle,  and  receive  the  one  as  well 
as  the  other  within  the  citadel.  The  man  does  not 
go  forth  before  us  fully  equipped  and  boldly  defying 
the  armies  of  the  living  God,  but  he  shouts  for  a 
truce,  alleges  that  mere  matters  of  opinion  are  not 
worth  contending  for,  and  that  a  man  is  no  more 
responsible  for  his  belief  than  he  is  for  the  color  of 
his  skin  or  the  height  of  his  stature.  This  diluted 
kind  of  scepticism  is  large  in  its  toleration.  Not 
attaching  much  importance  to  any  kind  of  religious 
belief,  it  is  indulgent  towards  all.  It  cares  not  to 
assail  by  argument,  or  otherwise,  this  creed  or  that; 
and  it  cares  as  little  about  defending  what  it  may 
have  adopted  as  its  own.  It  says,  leave  me  alone  to 
the  indulgence  of  my  opinion,  and  I  will  leave  you  to 
the  indulgence  of  yours.  Different  forms  of  religious 
belief  are  much  the  same  in  its  estimation,  as  the  dif- 
ferent shaped  or  different  colored  coats  which  men 
wear.  And  it  is  disposed  to  think  that  the  one  sits 
with  as  little  responsibility  on  the  conscience  as  the 
other  does  on  the  back.  It  will  stand  up  resolutely 
for  a  political  creed,  and  unsparingly  denounce  its 
opposite ;  it  will  have  its  favorite  theory  in  science, 
and  argue  keenly  for  it  against  every  other ;  it  will  be 
engrossed  with  its  land  or  merchandise,  and  suffer 
nothing  to  interfere  with  the  most  intense  devotion 
thereto.  But  it  has  no  zeal  to  spend  on  rehgious 
opinions,  it  has  no  article  in  theology  so  dear  as  to 
muster   up   an   argument   in   its  defence,  and  it  will 


OF  man's  responsibility.  265 

suffer  itself  to  be  engrossed  with  anything  or  every- 
thing rather  than  with  the  system  of  truth  which  it 
professes  to  believe.  It  is  indifferent  itself  toward 
religion,  and  it  cares  little  what  quiet  shape  it  may 
assume  in  others.  Gibbon,  speaking  of  the  paganism 
of  ancient  Rome,  says,  "  the  various  modes  of  worship 
which  prevailed  in  the  Roman  world  were  all  consid- 
ered by  the  people  as  equally  true,  by  the  philosopher 
as  equally  false,  and  by  the  magistrate  as  equally  useful." 
The  comment  of  some  one  is,  "after  eighteen  centuries 
of  the  Gospel,  we  seem  unhappily  to  be  coming  back 
to  the  same  point." 

A  very  weakened  sense  of  responsibility,  or  an 
actual  denial  of  it,  lies  at  the  bottom  of  that  indif- 
ferentism  which  is  so  extensively  prevalent  in  the 
present  age.  On  the  Continent,  especially  in  Germany 
and  France,  not  only  are  opinions  destructive  of  the 
sense  of  responsibility  widely  diffused  among  the 
masses,  but  in  the  case  of  vast  multitudes,  who  would 
not  wish  to  be  counted  the  foes  of  Christianity,  there 
is  an  utter  absence  of  anything  like  the  religious  obli- 
gation of  belief  This  state  of  matters — the  showing 
a  kind  of  civil  deference  to  religion  while  utterly 
heedless  of  the  obligation  which  rests  upon  the  indi- 
vidual conscience  in  reference  to  religion  itself — exists 
among  all  classes  from  the  higher  ranges  to  the  low 
levels  of  society.  "  We  find  especially,"  says  Dr. 
Krummaeher,  speaking  of  Germany,  "  an  indifference 
to  all  that  is  called  religion  in  that  mass  of  people 
with  whom  care  and  anxiety  for  daily  bread  exists. 
In  this  so-called  proletariat^  particularly  in  large  towns, 


266  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

this  intlifFerence  often  borders  on  animal  stupidity; 
the  material  wants  fill  the  whole  soul.  .  .  .  The 
number  of  the  indifferent  are,  however,  unhappily  not 
less  in  the  circles  of  the  well-instructed,  and  particu- 
larly among  State  functionaries.  Besides  that  time 
which  is  necessary  for  the  fulfilment  of  their  of&cial 
duties,  they  have  but  barely  sufficient  left  for  the  more 
trivial  dissipations  which  they  find  in  literary  and 
political  lectures,  and  in  social  intercourse.  In  re- 
gard to  all  higher  interests,  Pilate's  question  reigns — 
'  What  is  truth  T  They  believe  that  they  are  able  to 
infer  from  the  religious  controversy,  by  which  they 
are  on  all  sides  surrounded,  that  in  the  region  of 
supernatural  things  nothing  certain  is  to  be  learned. 
They  therefore  consider  it  wiser  not  to  enter  upon 
their  consideration,  and  passively  to  await  what  is 
once  to  be  revealed  as  truth  or  as  a  lovely  dream.'" 
This  picture  is  too  true  a  description  of  other  parts  of 
Europe  besides  Germany.  It  is  obvious  that  such  a 
state  of  things  can  only  consist  with  an  avowed  rejec- 
tion or  with  the  very  faintest  recognition  of  the  princi- 
ple that  man  is  responsible  for  his  religious  belief 

Indifferentism  as  to  the  real  import  of  evangelical 
truth — the  result,  it  may  be,  of  an  indiscriminate 
recognition  of  widely-differing  churches  by  the  political 
powers — is  sadly  prevalent  in  some  of  the  continental 
religious  bodies  at  the  present  day.  It 'is  no  uncom- 
mon thing,  to  find  men  of  all  shades  of  opini(5n,  from 
simple  deism  up  to  the  dry  skeleton  of  an  orthodox 

'  The  Religious  Conditiou  of  Christendom,  (1852,)  p.  423. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  267 

creed,  blended  togetlier  as  parts  of  tlie  same  pro- 
fessedly Christian  church.  Recent  events  have  shown 
an  unwillingness,  on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  to  moot  the  subject  of  a  confession 
grounded  in  its  details  on  the  law  and  the  testimony, 
and  to  insist  on  a  personal  adherence  to  the  articles 
of  evangelism  as  an  indispensable  condition  of  mem- 
bership. The  liking  of  some  of  the  continental 
Protestant  churches  for  a  coat  of  many  colors  has 
long  been  evinced ;  and  the  same  ecclesiastical  robe  is 
made  to  cover  the  man  whose  Christianity  consists 
merely  in  a  bare  recognition  of  the  New  Testament 
and  a  respect  for  Jesus  as  a  better  moral  teacher  than 
Socrates,  and  the  man  who  professedly  holds  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  the  atonement,  and  the  regenerat- 
ing influence  of  the  Spirit.  This  state  of  things  in- 
dicates an  enfeebled  sense  of  responsibility,  or  the 
existence,  somewhere,  of  the  notion,  that  religious 
belief  is  not  a  matter  of  personal  obligation  for  which 
■we  are  accountable  to  God.  It  was  against  such 
indiflferentism  that  Arndt,  Spener,  Bengel,  Franke, 
and  others,  lifted  up  their  voice  in  the  two  pre 
ceding  centuries.  And  on  the  side  of  a  spiritual 
Christianity,  of  a  sound  doctrinal  faith,  and  man's 
responsibility  for  the  same,  have  their  illustrious  suc- 
cessors, Tholuck,  Hengstenberg,  Miiller,  Neander, 
D'Aubigne,  Monod,  and  others,  fought  valiantly  in 
our  own  times. 

This  vague  sort  of  infidelity,  sometimes  asso- 
ciated with  a  professed  respect  for  Christ  and  the 
Scriptures,  and,  at   other  times,  allied  with  unbelief 


268  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE   DENIAL 

m  some  of  its  bolder  forms,  is  often  to  be  met  with 
in  the  workshops,  and  in  the  higher  circles  of  our 
own  land.  It  has  not  lacked  advocacy  on  the  part 
of  some  whose  position  and  talents  give  them  in- 
fluence. It  is  stated,  or  implied,  in  much  of  our 
current  popular  literature,  that  a  man's  creed  does 
not  depend  upon  himself  This  dogma  pervades  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Emerson,^  Napoleon,  one  of  his 
"representative  men,"  of  whom  he  tells  "horrible 
anecdotes,"  must  not,  in  his  view,  "be  set  down  as 
cruel ;  but  only  as  one  who  knew  no  impediment  to 
his  will."  He  depicts  him  as  an  "  exorbitant  egotist, 
who  narrowed,  impoverished,  and  absorbed  the  power 
and  existence  of  those  who  served  him ;"  and  concludes 
by  saying,  "it  was  not  Bonaparte's  fault."  He  thus 
condemns  and  acquits  in  the  same  breath,  sends  forth 
from  the  same  fountain  sweet  water  and  bitter.  Mr. 
Theodore  Parker  makes  each  form  of  religion  that 
has  figured  in  the  history  of  the  world,  "natural  and 
indispensable."  "  It  could  not  have  been  but  as  it  was." 
And,  therefore,  he  finds  truth,  or  the  "absolute  re 
ligion,"  in  all  forms;  "all  tending  towards  one  great 
and  beautiful  end.""  Of  course,  the  idea  of  the  re- 
ligious obligation  of  belief  resting  upon  the  individual 
conscience,  is  here  quite  out  of  question.  Mr.  F.  W. 
Newman,  who  is  so  fond  of  parting  ofi*  things  that 
most  men  connect  together,  would  persuade  us  that 
there  may  be  a  true  faith  without  a  true  belief,  as  if 
the  emotional   part  of  our   nature   was   independent 

'   Emerson's  Representative  Men,  pp.  114,  127. 
"  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  81. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  269 

of  the  intellectual.  "  Belief,"  says  he,  "  is  one  thing, 
and  faith  another."  And  he  complains  of  those  who, 
on  religious  grounds,  are  alienated  from  him  because 
he  has  adopted  "intellectual  conclusions"  different 
from  theirs — "  the  difference  between  them  and  him" 
turning  merely  "on  questions  of  learning,  history, 
criticism,  and  abstract  thought."^  The  philosophy  is 
as  bad  here  as  the  theology.  In  the  view  of  common 
sense  and  Scripture,  a  living  faith  is  as  the  doctrine 
believed.  But  Mr.  Newman,  in  common  with  Mr. 
Parker  and  others,  can  lay  down  his  offensive  weapons 
when  he  wills,  and  take  up  a  position  on  the  low 
ground  of  indifference  as  to  religious  belief  Then^ 
creeds  become  matters  of  meer  moonshine,  and  re- 
sponsibility is  regarded  as  a  fiction  invented  by  priests. 
This  is  part  of  the  bad  theology  of  Mr.  Bailey's  "  Fes- 
tus,"  as  we  formerly  noticed.  The  hero  of  the  poem 
is  made  to  say : 

"  Yet  merit  or  demerit  none  I  see 
In  nature,  human  or  material, 
In  passions  or  affections  good  or  bad. 
We  only  know  that  God's  best  purposes 
Are  oftenest  brought  about  by  dreadest  sins. 
Is  thunder  evil,  or  is  dew  divine  ? 
Does  virtue  lie  in  sunshine,  sin  in  storm  ? 
Is  not  each  natural,  each  needful  best?'" 

And  to  come  down  to  the  lower  levels  of  our  litera- 
ture, it  is  an  avowed  principle  of  the  Owen  or  Holy- 
oake  school,  that  a  man  who  does  wrong  is  not  to  be 
blamed  but  pitied;  and,  if  restraint  be  necessary,  he 
must  be  restrained  like  a  wild  bull  merely  that  society 

•  Phases  of  Faith,  Preface.  '  Bailey's  Festus,  p.  49. 


270  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

may  be  uninjured.  Man  is  thus  degraded,  in  tlie 
attempt  to  set  him  free  from  the  Divine  moral  govern- 
ment And  these  philosopher  are  every  day  acting 
an  absurdity,  in  speaking  of  "wrong"  or  "bad"  ac- 
tions ;  since,  in  their  view,  men  cannot  help  performing 
them,  and  these  actions  are  but  parts  of  one  har 
monious  whole. 

But,  to  rise  up  in  the  scale,  a  greater  name  than 
any  yet  mentioned  has,  in  an  "inaugural  discourse," 
lent  his  authority  to  the  pernicious  doctrine  of  non- 
responsibility  for  belief  Many  of  our  ingenuous 
academic  youth  were  startled,  some  years  ago,  on 
hearing  it  given  forth,  with  something  like  oracular 
authority,  from  the  halls  of  science,  as  a  great  truth, 
that  man  has  no  control  over  his  belief,  that  he  is  no 
more  responsible  for  his  opinions  than  he  is  for  his 
color  or  his  height,  and  that  an  infidel  or  an  atheist 
is  to  be  pitied  but  not  blamed.  This,  we  are  per- 
suaded, is  a  piece  of  flimsy  sophistry,  which  no  man 
durst  utter,  and  which  would  not  be  listened  to  for 
a  moment,  in  connection  with  any  other  subject  but 
that  of  religion.  It  would  be  condemned  in  the 
senate,  and  at  the  bar,  it  would  be  drowned  in  the 
tumult  of  the  exchange  and  the  market-place.  Com- 
mon sense,  and  a  regard  to  worldly  interests,  would 
rise  up  and  hoot  down  the  traitor.  Unfortunately, 
however,  in  the  province  of  religion,  the  natural  in- 
disposition of  the  mind  to  things  unseen  and  spiritual, 
allies  itself  with  the  pleadings  of  the  sophist,  and 
receives  his  doctrine  of  irresponsibility  with  some- 
thing like  flattering  unction.     Nothing  more  tlian  this 


OF  man's  responsibility.  271 

is  requisite,  to  undermine  tlie  foundation  of  all  re- 
ligious belief  and  morals,  to  let  open  the  floodgates  of 
immorality,  and  to  make  the  restraints  of  religion  like 
the  brittle  flax  or  the  yielding  sand.  In  opposition 
to  such  latitudinarianism,  we  maintain  that  man  is 
responsible  for  the  dispositions  which  he  cherishes, 
for  the  opinions  which  he  holds  and  avows,  and  for 
his  habitual  conduct.  This  is  going  the  whole  length 
of  Scripture,  but  no  farther,  which  affirms  that  every 
one  of  us  must  give  an  account  of  himself  unto  God. 
And  this  meets  with  a  response  from  amid  the  ele- 
ments of  man's  moral  nature,  which  sets  its  seal  that 
the  thing  is  true. 

1.  Our  first  remark,  then,  on  this  subject,  is,  that 
responsihility  is  a  matter  of  consciousness.  A  sense  of 
moral  responsibility  naturally  springs  up  in  the  mind 
of  man.  It  does  not  depend  upon  processes  of  rea 
soning,  nor  does  it  arise  originally  out  of  the  truthsi 
of  revelation.  But  it  is  itself  a  fundamental  trutl. 
in  moral  science,  a  primary  principle  of  our  menta/' 
and  moral  constitution.  Like  the  doctrine  in  physical 
of  the  existence  of  a  material  world,  or  that  in  meta 
physics  of  the  free  agency  of  man,  it  is  not  to  be 
brought  to  the  bar  of  reason,  but  it  is  a  simple 
question  of  fact  to  be  determined  by  observation  and 
experience.  Revelation  takes  it  for  granted,  and  rea- 
sons, and  exhorts  upon  it.  And  we  often  find  it  healthy 
and  vigorous  in  men  whose  reasoning  powers  are  feeble 
and  little  exercised.  Every  man  knows  and  feels 
that  he  is  a  moral  agent,  that  he  is  placed  under  a 
system  of  government  which  takes  cognizance  of  right 


272  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

and  wrong,  and  that  he  is  accountable  for  his  dispo- 
sitions and  conduct  to  his  fellows  here  and  to  the 
Supreme  Being  hereafter.  We  may  be  told  that 
travellers  have  described  savage  nations  so  degraded 
and  brutalized,  as  to  have  no  such  consciousness  as 
that  of  which  we  speak.  We  may  be  pointed  to 
individuals  living  and  moving  amid  civilized  society, 
so  besotted  and  sunken  in  vice  as  apparently  never  to 
be  disturbed  with  the  idea  that  they  are  the  subjects 
of  invisible  government  and  accountable  to  God. 
Yea,  we  may  be  directed  to  those  few  philosophers 
who  stood  out  from  the  crowd  in  persuading  them- 
selves, and  in  endeavoring  to  persuade  others,  that 
the  notion  of  moral  responsibility  is  a  mere  chimera 
invented  by  priests  and  fanatics  for  frightening  and 
enslaving  men.  And  we  may  be  asked,  how,  in 
the  face  of  all  these  exceptions,  we  can  maintain 
that  the  consciousness  of  responsibility  belongs  to 
all  mankind?  Why,  suppose  that  a  man  with  a 
jaundiced  eye  were  to  hold  that  the  fleecy  clouds 
which  float  over  the  face  of  the  sky,  or  the  pure  snow 
that  covers  the  sides  of  the  hills,  or  the  white  paper 
on  which  he  looks,  were  yellow.  What  would  that 
prove?  Not  that  these  objects,  which  everybody  else 
believed  to  be  white,  were  of  a  different  color ;  not 
that  men's  eyes  were  organs  which  in  general  conveyed 
false  impressions,  but  that  the  eyes  of  the  individual 
himself  were  diseased.  We  would  never  think  of 
*  going  among  savage  nations  which  have  become  bru- 
talized by  a  long  course  of  sensuality  and  ferocity; 
we  would   never   appeal   to  this   individual   or   that 


OF  man's  responsibility.  273 

individual,  wlio,  by  vicious  indulgences,  has  sunk 
himself  below  the  level  of  the  brutes ;  nor  would  we 
sit  at  the  feet  of  sceptical  philosophers,  in  order  to 
obtain  any  very  strong  proofs  of  the  universality  and 
force  of  those  moral  convictions  which  we  assert  to 
be  fundamental  principles  in  man's  nature.  But  we 
would  make  our  appeal  to  minds  where  conscience 
sits  invested  with  some  authority,  and  where  she  is 
listened  to  with  some  degree  of  deference ;  where 
the  moral  sense,  so  to  speak,  is  not  drowned  in 
sensuality,  nor  bewildered  and  led  astray  by  a  false 
philosophy ;  and,  in  such  minds,  we  would  find  that 
the  consciousness  of  moral  responsibility  springs  up 
naturally,  and  is  strong.  We  are  not  disposed,  how- 
ever, to  exclude  these  exceptions,  as  they  are  called, 
altogether.  We  might  appeal  to  these  very  savage 
tribes,  and  amid  their  brutal  degradation,  and  in 
their  cruel  and  superstitious  rites,  discover  the  rudi- 
mental  principles  of  man's  moral  nature.  We  might 
follow  the  man  whose  conscience  seemed  seared,  and 
whose  heart  seemed  reprobate,  whose  perceptions  of 
right  and  wrong  were  severely  blunted,  and  who 
appeared  never  to  be  troubled  with  the  idea  of 
responsibility, — we  might  follow  him  into  his  retire- 
ment, and,  in  his  hours  of  calm  reflection,  we  would 
see  conscience  asserting  her  supremacy  and  avenging 
her*  wrongs,  the  banished  idea  of  responsibility  re- 
turning in  its  vividness,  and  the  dread  of  a  Supreme 
and  Omniscient  Being  forcing  itself  upon  the  soul. 
We  might  appeal  to  the  sophist  himself,  and,  not- 
withstanding all  the  refinements  of  his  false  philoso- 


274  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

phy,  we  would  see  that  at  times  he  could  no  more 
divest  himself  of  his  moral  nature,  than  he  could  of 
his  belief  in  matter  and  a  material  world,  when  he 
walked  the  streets,  jostled  the  crowd,  or  came  in 
contact  with  the  pillars  that  stood  by  the  way.  Men 
are  responsible,  they  know  it  and  feel  it,  and  it  is 
only  by  a  long-continued  process  of  vicious  indul- 
gences, or  by  the  refinement  of  an  unreasonable 
philosophy,  that  their  sense  of  accountability  is 
deadened  or  subdued. 

Now  we  affirm  that  men  are  responsible  for  the 
dispositions  which  they  cherish,  and  that  this  is  a 
matter  of  consciousness.  Look  at  that  man  who  is 
ever  and  anon  hurried  into  scrapes  and  calamities  by 
a  proud,  ambitious,  and  hateful  temper.  And  you 
will  see  that,  when  the  storm  of  passion  has  passed, 
and  reflection  has  succeeded  to  fury,  the  individual 
blames  himself,  and  suffers  keenly  in  his  own  bosom. 
His  own  unsophisticated  mind  never  tells  him  that 
over  his  temper  he  had  no  control,  that  it  was  as 
purely  the  result  of  physical  causes  as  the  swoln 
river  that  chafes  and  foams  in  its  bed,  or  as  the 
ebbings  and  Sowings  of  the  sea.  No.  The  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  rises  naturally  in  his 
bosom,  and,  under  its  influence,  he  bewails  his  folly 
and  condemns  himself.  We  affirm,  too,  that  men 
are  responsible  for  their  opinions,  and  that  this  also 
is  a  matter  of  consciousness.  Men's  opinions  are 
generally  very  much  influenced  by  their  dispositions, 
their  belief  on  most  subjects  is  in  a  great  measure 
controlled   by  their   inclination.     And  of  this   every 


OF  man's  responsibility.  275 

man  is  conscious.  We  feel  that  we  cannot  believe 
otherwise  than  that  two  and  two  make  four.  And 
were  an  individual,  without  jesting,  stoutly  to  main- 
tain that  two  and  two  make  five,  we  would  set  him 
down  for  an  idiot,  and  pity — not  blame — him  for  the 
aberrations  of  his  understanding.  But  we  know 
that  we  may,  if  we  will,  reject  or  receive  this  and  the 
other  moral  truth ;  and  we  not  merely  pity,  but 
blame  the  man,  who,  in  spite  of  the  strongest  and 
clearest  evidence,  refuses  to  believe.  Now,  it  may  be 
asked,  how  is  this  fiict  to  be  accounted  for, — a  fact  in 
the  natural  history  of  man — that  men  feel  that  they 
can  embrace  or  reject  this  opinion  or  that  opinion  if 
they  will,  and  that  they  commend  or  condemn  others 
for  embracing  or  rejecting  it,  except  on  the  principle 
that  God  has  made  man  a  moral  and  responsible 
agent,  and  that  man  himself  is  conscious  of  it  ? 
"  His  creed  may  be  his  crime ;  and  surely  none 
ought  to  see  this  more  clearly  than  the  writers  who 
deny  it ;  for  why  their  eternal  invectives  against 
'  dogmas,' — and  especially  the  tolerably  universal 
dogma  that  men  are  responsible  for  the  formation  of 
their  opinions, — except  upon  the  supposition  that 
men  are  responsible  for  framing  and  maintaining 
them  ?  If  they  are  not,  men  should  be  left  alone ; 
if  they  are,  they  are  to  be  thought  of  as  '  worse  and 
better '  for  their  '  intellectual  creeds.' "  ^  We  affirm, 
too,  that  men  are  responsible  for  their  conduct  in 
general,  and  that  this  also  is  a  mattei  of  conscious- 

'  The  Eclipse  of  Faith,  p.    115. 


276  INDIFFERENTISM  ;     OR,    THE    DENIAL 

ness.  Our  conduct  is  very  much  tlie  result  of  our 
dispositions  and  opinions.  So  that,  if  it  be  admitted 
that  we  are  responsible  for  the  one,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  we  are  responsible  for  the  other.  But 
it  is  not  so  much  with  the  philosophy  of  the  fact,  as 
with  the  fact  itself,  that  we  have  at  present  to  do. 
There  is  the  feeling  of  remorse  bearing  witness  to 
this  trijth.  "  Remorse,"  says  Isaac  Taylor,^  "  is  man's 
dread  prerogative,  and  is  the  natural  accompaniment 
of  his  constitution  as  a  knowing,  voluntary  agent, 
left  in  trust  with  his  own  welfare  and  that  of  others. 
Remorse,  if  we  exclude  the  notion  of  responsibility, 
is  an  enigma  in  human  nature,  never  to  be  ex- 
plained." 

r  It  will  not  do  to  say,  as  has  been  said,  that  these 
feelings  are  altogether  factitious,  that  they  have  been 
instilled  into  our  minds  by  our  fond  mothers  who  have 
spoiled  us,  or  by  the  ministers  of  religion  who,  from 
policy  or  self-interest,  would  frighten  us  ;  and  that,  but 
for  such  artificial  training,  the  spendthrift,  the  sen- 
sualist, and  the  criminal,  would  never  shrink  from 
the  fear  of  present  God,  and  the  anticipation  of  a 
future  reckoning.  For,  besides  remarking  with  the 
author  of  the  "  Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,"  that, 
"  nothing  can  be  more  unphilosophical  than  to  attrib- 
ute any  permanent  and  universally  diffused  modes  of 
feeling  -to  the  influence  and  interested  teaching  of 
some  one  class  of  the  community," — ^we  ask,  how  comes 
it  that  men  'vho  never  crossed  the  threshold  of  the 

'   Man  Responsible,  p.  25. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  277 

sanctuary,  and  never  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  teachers  of 
religion,  who  have  despised  a  good  mother's  counsels, 
and  whose  lives  have  run  contrary  to  the  parental  ex- 
ample,— how  comes  it  that  they,  in  their  calm  moments 
of  reflection,  cannot  divest  themselves  of  the  unwel- 
come idea  of  responsibility,  of  an  invisible  Power,  and 
of  a  coming  account  ?  It  is  a  fact,  then,  in  the  natu- 
ral history  of  man,  not  to  be  proved  by  reasoning,  but 
to  be  decided  simply  by  observation,  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  attaches  to  him.  Independ- 
ent of  all  external  teaching,  the  conviction  is  naturally 
produced  in  his  mind  that  he  has,  in  a  great  measure, 
a  control  over  his  opinions  and  conduct,  and  that  for 
these  he  is  accountable  here  and  hereafter.  And  it  is 
only  when  he  has  unmanned  himself,  as  it  were,  by 
vicious  indulgences,  or  been  led  astray  by  a  corrupt 
philosophy,  that  he  becomes  dead  to  the  feeling  that 
he  is  the  subject  of  moral  government  and  responsible 
to  God. 

2.  Our  second  remark  is,  that  Responsibility  rests  on 
the  fact  of  mail's  free  agency.  The  ground  has  been 
denied.  But  what  has  not  ?  We  appeal  to  every  man's 
conscience  and  unsophisticated  sense  in  proof  of  it. 
"  It  moves  for  all  that,"  said  Galileo,  after  signing  his 
memorable  recantation.  And  endeavor  to  persuade 
men,  as  you  will,  that  they  are  driven  on  by  irresisti- 
ble physical  causes,  they  declare  in  spite  of  all  your 
reasonings,  we  are  free  after  all.  Now,  it  is  obvious, 
on  the  slightest  reflection,  that  our  will,  and  our  will 
only,  is  the  proper  object  of  command ;  and  that  we 
are  no  otherwise  responsible,  or  susceptible  of  moral 


278  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

government,  than  as  we  are  the  subjects  of  voluntary 
powers.  Man  is  accountable  because  he  is  a  free 
agent.  And  the  dispositions  which  he  habitually 
cherishes,  the  opinions  which  he  holds,  and  the  con- 
duct which  he  pursues,  are,  in  a  great  measure,  un- 
der his  control,  and  as  he  wills  them  to  be.  The 
distinction  between  moral  and  natural  inability  is  a 
sound  and  useful  one.  Moral  inability  lies  in  the 
want  of  disposition,  inclination,  or  will,  to  do  that 
which  a  man  has  natural  faculties  to  perform.  Natu- 
ral inability,  on  the  other  hand,  arises  from  the  want 
of  natural  faculties  and  means  to  do  that  which  the 
individual,  it  may  be,  would  very  gladly  do.  This 
distinction  is  before  us,  when  we  notice  that  man  is 
responsible  for  his  dispositions,  his  belief,  and  his 
conduct,  in  so  far  as  they  are  the  result  of  his  own 
free  agency. 

Man  is  responsible  for  his  dispositions,  because  the 
Creator  has  endowed  him  with  faculties  in  the  right 
exercise  of  which  he  can  bring  them  under  his  con- 
trol. We  make  all  reasonable  allowances  for  original 
temperament,  or  peculiarities  in  the  organic  structure 
of  individuals.  These,  however,  are  not  altogether 
beyond  the  reach  of  moral  culture.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  a  chief  business  in  education,  to  study  these 
peculiarities,  to  bring  proper  motives  to  bear  upon 
them,  and  thus,  in  some  measure,  gain  a  mastery  over 
the  original  temperament.  In  asserting  that  man 
can,  to  a  considerable  extent,  make  himself  master 
of  his  dispositions,  and  that  for  their  state  he  is  re- 
sponsible, we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  he  can,  at  any 


OF  man's  responsibility.  279 

given  momeiit,  by  a  direct  volition  of  his  mind,  call 
forth  this  emotion  or  that  emotion,  this  kind  of  tem- 
per or  that  kind  of  temper.  But  what  we  mean  to 
say  is,  that  he  can,  at  his  will,  attend  to  those  truths 
or  come  in  contact  with  those  objects,  the  natural  in- 
fluence of  which  is  to  excite  certain  emotions,  and 
produce  such  a  disposition  of  the  mind  and  heart. 
Take  an  example  in  illustration  of  this  principle. 
Benevolence  toward  the  suffering  poor  is  an  excellent 
disposition  of  the  soul.  I  may  not  be  able,  by  a  di- 
rect effort  of  the  mind,  to  call  up  this  emotion  at 
any  time  or  in  any  place.  But  I  can,  if  I  will,  listen 
to  the  honest  tale  of  distress,  which  the  virtuous  poor 
have  to  tell ;  I  can,  if  I  will,  visit  the  fatherless  and 
widows  in  their  afflictions.  And  thus,  by  a  voluntary  ex- 
ercise of  my  own  power,  place  myself  in  circumstances 
that  will  excite  or  strengthen  compassion  and  benevo- 
lence towards  the  wretched.  The  frequent  repetition  of 
this  voluntary  process  of  attending  to,  and  impartially 
examining  scenes  of  distress,  results  in  the  production 
of  the  man  of  feeling  and  of  a  benevolent  disposition. 
Whereas,  in  the  case  of  the  man  who  meets  every  sup 
pliant  with  a  surly  look,  and  refuses  to  listen  to  the  tale 
of  the  stranger,  who,  like  the  Levite  in  the  parable, 
coldly  and  unconcernedly  passes  by  the  sufferer  on  the 
wayside ;  that  callous  and  unfeeling  disposition  is  form- 
ing which  is  not  only  proof  against  compassion,  but 
which  even  delights  in  producing  scenes  of  woe. 

It  is  just,  in  like  manner,  with  the  devout  emotions. 
One  man  moves  day  after  day  amid  the  glories  of 
earth  and  skv,  without  a  pious  sentiment  or  feeling 


280  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    Oil,    TRE    DENIAL 

toward  Him  who  stretclied  out  the  heavens  like  a  cur- 
tain, and  clothed  the  grass  of  the  field,  because  he 
does  not  attend  to  them  as  manifestations  of  the  wis- 
dom and  goodness  of  God.  Another  individual,  of  no 
greater  strength  of  intellect  it  may  be,  directs  his  at- 
tention to  these  evidences  of  the  character  and  presence 
of  the  Divinity,  habitually  meditates  on  them,  and  feels 
that — 

"  these  declare 
God's  goodness  beyond  tliouglit,  and  power  divine." 

In  these  and  similar  cases,  men  are  responsible  for 
the  moral  state  of  the  heart,  because  they  have  the 
power  of  attending  to  those  truth  and  objects  which  are 
fitted  to  produce  such  impressions  on  the  soul.  We  say 
to  the  ferocious  man,  to  the  avaricious  man,  to  the  sen- 
sualist, and  to  the  revengeful,  and  to  the  man  all  whose 
mental  tendencies  are  away  from  the  absolute  good, 
that  for  these  dispositions  you  are  responsible,  because 
you  voluntarily  sought  and  familiarized  your  minds 
with  those  objects  and  scenes  that  produced  and 
strengthened  them,  and  turned  away  from  those  other 
objects  and  scenes  that  would  have  counteracted 
them,  and  produced  dispositions  of  a  different  and 
nobler  kind.  It  is  thus  that  a  man  is  brought  in  re- 
sponsible for  those  ungodly  emotions  and  dispositions, 
which,  having  grown  with  his  growth,  and  strengthened 
with  his  strength,  have  carried  him  captive  and  hold 
him  in  fetters  which  nothing  but  a  mighty  spiritual  in- 
fluence can  rend  asunder. 

It  is  on  the  very  same  principle,  that  we  hold  man 
to  be  responsible  for  his  belief.     In  our  opinions,  in  sr. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  281 

far  as  they  are  influenced  by  our  dispositions,  our 
beliefs,  in  so  far  as  they  are  controlled  by  our  in- 
clination, are  legitimate  subjects  of  responsibility. 
Inclination  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  in  believing 
that  two  and  two  make  four,  or  that  the  three  angles  of 
a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles.  A  man  in 
his  senses  could  not  believe  otherwise.  But  inclina- 
tion has  much  to  do  in  receiving  or  rejecting  moral 
and  religious  truth.  All  enlightened  belief  depends 
upon  evidence,  the  effect  of  the  clearest  and  strongest 
evidence  depends  very  much  on  attention,  and  at- 
tention is  a  mental  exercise  over  which  we  have  a 
complete  control.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  very 
obvious  that  a  man  may  contract  deep  moral  guilt,  by 
neglecting  to  attend  to  evidence  in  support  of  a  sub- 
ject of  intrinsic  magnitude  and  bearing  on  man's 
highest  interests.  The  case  of  the  Jewish  people  is 
in  point.  When  Jesus  of  Nazareth  appeared  among 
them,  he  claimed  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Messiah  of  promise.  In  support  of  these  claims.  He 
openly  wrought  miracles  of  surpassing  grandeur  and 
benevolence.  He  did  not  call  on  them  to  believe  on 
the  ground  of  his  own  bare  assertions,  but  he  pointed 
them  to  his  mighty  deeds  in  proof  that  he  had  come 
from  God.  He  said,  if  ye  believe  not  me,  believe 
the  works.  Now,  we  do  not  assert  that  the  Jews 
were  under  a  moral  obligation  to  believe  at  the  very 
first  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  but  we  do  assert 
that  they  were  morally  bound  to  attend  to  that  clear 
and  strong  evidence,  to  weigh  it  fairly,  and  to  let  it 
have   its   full    influence   on   their  minds.      Those   c^ 


282  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

them  that  did  so,  hailed  him  as  the  deliverer  and  con- 
solation of  Israel.  While  the  vast  majority  of  them, 
because  his  doctrines  thwarted  their  fondest  wishes 
and  frowned  on  their  grovelling  expectations,  ridiculed 
his  pretensions,  ascribed  his  works  to  Satanic  agency, 
and  treated  him  as  the  vilest  of  impostors.  That  incli- 
nation had  much  to  do  with  this,  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  the  multitudes,  at  his  first  appearing,  would, 
on  the  ground  of  his  miraculous  deeds,  have  made  him 
their  king ;  and  it  was  not  till  they  saw  his  designs  to 
be  running  counter  to  their  wishes,  that  they  rejected 
him  and  cried  out,  "crucify  him."  It  was  in  their  re- 
fusal honestly  and  impartially  to  attend  to  that  evidence, 
that  the  Israelitish  nation  incurred  deep  moral  guilt  in 
the  sight  of  heaven. 

A  messenger  from  majesty  arrives  in  the  condemned 
cell  of  some  gaol,  and  presents  the  doomed  criminal 
with  a  document  containing  a  full  and  free  pardon, 
to  which  is  affixed  the  royal  seal.  He  is  skeptical 
at  first  as  to  the  truth  of  the  document.  But  he 
carefully  examines  the  seal.  He  is  convinced  that 
it  is  the  sovereign's,  and  on  that  evidence  he  joy- 
fully and  gratefully  receives  the  pardon.  The  Bible 
is  such  a  document.  It  claims  to  be  divine.  It 
contains  important  statements  on  subjects  of  vast 
magnitude.  It  presents  itself  to  our  notice  under 
the  highest  of  all  authority.  It  declares  that  on  its 
reception  or  rejection  depend  our  greatest  interests 
in  time  and  eternity.  And,  in  support  of  all  these 
claims  and  assertions,  it  exhibits  an  amount  of 
evidence   which,    for    weight   and   clearness,    can   be 


OF  man's  responsibility.  283 

produced  by  no  otlier  book  in  the  world.  It  says, 
attend  to  that  evidence,  look  at  it  fairly  and  impar- 
tially. And  it  dreads  not  the  consequence.  We  do 
not  say  that  a  man  is  morally  bound  to  believe  the 
volume,  on  the  naked  assertion  that  it  is  divine. 
But  we  do  say  that  he  is  responsible  for  whatever 
opinions  he  forms  in  reference  to  it,  be  these  opinions 
friendly  or  hostile.  He  can,  by  a  voluntary  effort, 
examine  the  evidence;  he  can  search  the  book,  he 
can  look  at  the  seals,  he  can  question  the  witnesses. 
This  he  can  do,  and  must  do  honestly.  And,  in  this 
intellectual  process  over  which  he  has  a  direct  con- 
trol, in  this  effort  of  the  attention  which  he  has  at 
his  will,  lies  his  responsibility  for  his  belief  The 
very  fact  that  the  Book,  irrespective  altogether  of  its 
truthfulness,  claims  to  have  come  from  the  throne  of 
the  Eternal,  the  very  fact  that  the  subjects  of  which 
it  treats  are  of  vast  moment,  the  very  fact  that  it 
presents  such  a  brilliant  array  of  evidence  in  proof 
of  its  divinity, — these  place  all  men,  among  whom  it 
comes,  under  a  moral  obligation  to  attend  to  it,  and, 
in  the  flice  of  the  evidence,  impartially  to  form  their 
opinions  regarding  it.  One  man  may  refuse  to  do 
this,  because  his  mind  is  habitually  so  listless  and 
indifferent  as  never  to  care  about  having  any  settled 
opinions  on  such  subjects.  Another  man  may  be  so 
profligate  and  sensual  as,  like  the  beast  in  his  lair,  to 
be  unwilling  to  be  disturbed  by  the  approach  of  the 
light.  While  another  man,  from  pride  of  intellect, 
or  station,  or  self-sufficiency,  may  never  bend  his 
mind   humbly  and   fairly  to  consider  whether  or  not 


284  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

the  Gospel  is  the  truth  of  God.  Hume,  the  celebrated 
infidel,  tells  us  that  his  readings  in  the  New  Testament 
were  but  scanty.  Voltaire  and  Paine  betrayed  gross 
ignorance  of  the  Christian  system  which  they  thought 
to  banish  from  the  world.  But  whatever  be  the  specific 
moral  cause  that  keeps  men  from  attending  to  the 
Gospel  testimony,  or  induces  them  to  examine  it  in  a 
frivolous  and  prejudicial  manner,  it  is  in  the  attention, 
over  which  they  have  a  direct  control,  that  lies  their 
responsibility  for  their  belief 

This  point  being  established  in  reference  to  dis- 
positions and  opinions,  nothing  need  be  added  to 
ehow  that  the  principle  holds  good  in  reference  to 
actions.  Our  conduct,  as  already  said,  is  very  much 
the  result  of  our  opinions  and  dispositions.  I  cherish 
such  dispositions  and  form  such  opinions  in  reference 
to  my  neighbor  and  the  Supreme  Being,  and  I  act 
accordingly.  If  I  have  a  control  over  my  dispositions 
and  opinions  and  am  responsible  for  them,  I  have  a 
control  over  and  am  responsible  for  the  actions  that 
proceed  from  them.  This  is  never  questioned  in  the 
sphere  of  worldly  concerns.  It  is  only  when  you 
venture  within  the  sphere  of  religion  that  skepticism 
is  thrown  over  it.  Some  men  who  talk  and  act 
rationally  enough  in  their  ordinary  intercourse  with 
the  world,  would  doff  that  rationality  and  play  the 
fool,  when  they  touch  upon  man's  relation  to  things 
unseen  and  eternal.  They  assail  and  condemn  men 
of  a  difi^erent  political  creed  from  their  own  for  the 
opinions  \^  hich  they  advocate,  and  the  thought  never 
occurs  to  them  that  it  is  folly  so  to  do,  because  over 


OF  man's  responsibility.  ^       285 

their  belief  they  have  ho  control.  But  no  sooner 
does  the  politician  become  a  moral  teacher,  than,  (as 
in  a  well-known  instance,  not,  we  trust,  to  be  re- 
peated,) he  announces  it  as  a  great  truth  which  has 
gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  that  man  has  no  con- 
trol over  his  belief,  and  that  an  atheist  is  to  be  pitied 
but  not  blamed.  True  philosophy,  and  man's  unsophis- 
ticated nature,  common  sense,  and  revealed  religion, 
tell  us,  that  we  have  such  a  control,  and  that  for  our 
sentiments  and  conduct  we  are  responsible  to  God. 

3d.  Our  third  remark  is,  that  responsihility  is  to 
be  measured  by  ability  and  'privilege.  Responsibility 
springs,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  structure  of  the 
human  mind  as  endowed  with  faculties  in  the  exer- 
cise of  which  man  can  direct  his  thoughts  to  a  given 
subject,  compare  all  the  flicts  and  considerations 
bearing  upon  it,  and  thus  arrive  at  an  honest  and 
impartial  decision  regarding  it.  But  the  measure  of 
responsibility,  in  the  case  of  particular  communities 
or  individuals,  is  to  be  estimated  by  such  things  as 
the  following : — the  capacity  of  their  understanding, 
the  means  and  opportunities  of  information,  and  the 
force  of  evidence.  The  poor  harmless  idiot  who  fancies 
himself  a  king,  and  declares  the  reigning  monarch  a 
usurper ;  who  talks  day  after  day  of  raising  armies, 
and  marching  on  to  London  to  take  possession  of  the 
crown;  is  never  accounted  a  traitor,  tried  and  con- 
demned as  such.  The  man  whose  intellect  is  naturally 
so  imbecile  as  scarcely  to  comprehend  the  ideas  of  a 
God,  of  his  own  moral  relations,  and  of  a  future  life, 
occupies  a  vastly  lower  position  in  point  of  respon 


286  ^        INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

sibility,  (if  he  occupies  any  position  on  that  ground  at 
all,)  than  the  man  whose  intellect  is  naturally  sound 
and  vigorous,  but  who,  in  reference  to  moral  and 
religious  truth,  is  a  child  in  understanding. 

It  is,  in  like  manner,  with  the  means  and  opportu- 
nities of  information.  No  one  would  ever  say  that 
the  Bechuana  of  the  desert,  who  lived  like  his 
forefathers,  remote  from  civilization,  who  had  never 
seen  the  face  of  a  missionary,  nor  heard  a  word  about 
the  Saviour  of  mankind,  is  responsible  in  the  same 
degree  as  a  Briton  living  in  this  land  of  light  and 
liberty  where  knowledge  runs  to  and  fro  and  is  in- 
creased. 

Responsibility  takes  its  measure,  not  only  from  the 
capacity  of  the  understanding,  and  the  means  and 
opportunities  of  information,  but  also  from  the  force 
of  evidence.  This  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  Paul  in 
the  first  two  chapters  of  his  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
and  the  inspired  illustration  accords  with  uninspired 
testimonies  and  man's  moral  sentiments.  Look 
abroad,  then,  upon  the  ancient  heathen  world,  upon 
the  seats  of  intellectual  refinement,  Egypt,  Greece, 
and  Rome.  And  what  do  we  witness?  Men  pro- 
fessing themselves  to  be  wise, — claiming  to  be  philo- 
sophers,— worshipping  images  in  the  shape  of  men,  and 
birds,  and  beasts,  and  creeping  things ;  debasing  and 
dishonoring  God,  and  debasing  and  dishonoring 
themselves.  But  some  will  say,  they  were  not  re- 
sponsible for  this;  over  their  dispositions,  their 
opinions,  and  their  conduct  in  tliis  matter,  they  had 
no  control.     They  were  to  be  pitied,  not  blamed ;  no 


OF  man's  responsibility.  287 

more  to  be  blamed  than  for  tlie  color  of  their  sldn 
or  the  height  of  their  stature.  Yes,  says  Paul, 
they  were  to  be  blamed,  they  were  responsible  in  this 
matter,  they  were  guilty  in  cherishing  these  vile  af- 
fections, in  holding  these  erroneous  opinions,  and  in 
manifesting  such  degrading  conduct.  They  had 
evidence  which,  if  they  had  duly  attended  to  it,  would 
have  led  them  to  feel,  to  think,  and  to  act  differently. 
There  was  a  sufficiency  of  evidence  in  the  works  of 
creation,  in  the  shining  heavens  above  them,  and 
in  the  fruitful  earth  around  them,  to  have  convinced 
them  that  one  Almighty,  and  all  perfect  Being  had 
made  and  presides  over  the  whole.  It  is  not  the 
want  of  evidence,  but  the  want  of  relish  for  the 
truth  about  the  Creator,  that  accounts  for  their  idol- 
atrous opinions  and  practices.  "For  the  invisible 
things  of  him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  godhead;  so  that 
they  are  without  excuse."^ 

The  heathen,  then,  were  responsible;  and  that 
responsibility  took  its  measure  from  the  means  of 
information,  and  the  force  of  evidence,  which  they 
possessed.  But  the  measure  of  our  responsibility 
is  vastly  greater  than  theirs.  We  walk  amid  a 
clearer  light  than  what  is  emitted  from  these  resplen- 
dent heavens,  we  hear  louder,  fuller,  and  more  im- 
pressive voices  than  any  which  proceed  from  the 
hills  and  the  valleys,  the  woods  and  the  waters.     The 

'  Romans,  i.  20. 


288  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    TEE    DENIAL 

revelation  which  has  come  to  us  direct  from  the 
throne  of  the  Eternal,  containing,  as  it  does,  ample 
information  on  subjects  of  supreme  importance, — 
information  which  none  of  the  wisest  of  the  heathen 
could  have  evoked  from  the  material  heavens  and 
earth, — this  places  us  on  a  ground  of  responsibility 
higher  far  than  that  occupied  by  the  most  gifted  sage 
of  the  Grecian  schools,  who  had  no  other  light  but  the 
glimmering  light  of  nature.  This  is  what  the  apostle 
means  when  he  says,  "  as  many  as  have  sinned  without 
law,  (that  is,  without  a  special  revelation  of  the  divine 
will,)  shall  also  be  condemned  without  law  (or  by 
a  different  standard) ;  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in 
the  law  shall  be  judged  by  the  law."^  All  who,  with- 
out a  divine  revelation,  have  erred  from  the  truth  and 
done  wrong,  will  be  condemned  by  the  evidence 
afforded  by  the  light  of  nature;  and  all  who  have 
sinned  under  the  revelation  of  God's  will  shall  be 
judged  by  that  revelation.  Reason  and  Scripture 
thus  unite  their  testimonies,  in  establishing  the  po- 
sition that  responsibility  is  in  proportion  to  the 
means  of  information  and  the  weight  and  clearness 
of  evidence. 

An  individual  may  be  very  unwilling  to  avail  him- 
self of  these  means,  and  to  look  calmly  and  im- 
partially at  that  evidence ;  but  this  indifference  only 
adds  to  his  guilt,  and  does  not,  in  the  least,  lessen  the 
measure  of  his  responsibility.  Responsibility  takes 
its  measure  not  from  an  individual's  inclination,  but 

'  Romans,  ii.  12. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  289 

from  an  individual's  capacity  of  understanding,  bis 
opportunity  of  arriving  at  the  truth,  and  the  suf- 
ficiency of  evidence  which  he  enjoys.  Were  an 
individual  to  hold  that  responsibility  takes  its  measure 
from  the  inclination,-  or  what  is  called  moral  ability, 
he  would  be  landed  in  the  very  strange  position  that 
a  man  is  under  an  obligation  only  to  do  that  which 
he  is  inclined  to  do.  In  other  words,  he  would  tear 
up  responsibility,  root  and  fibre,  and  cast  it  to  the 
winds.  Suppose  that,  in  reference  to  some  disturbed 
district,  a  royal  proclamation  were  issued  forbidding 
the  inhabitants,  under  severe  penalties,  to  go  abroad 
after  sunset.  The  proclamation  is  read  aloud  at  the 
market-cross,  it  is  posted  up  on  the  church  doors  and 
all  other  places  of  public  resort.  None  who  wished 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  purport  of  the  royal 
decree,  could  remain  ignorant  of  it.  But  some  in- 
dividuals who  gave  no  heed  to  royal  proclamations, 
and  would  not  trouble  themselves  to  ascertain  the 
meaning  of  this  particular  one,  venture  abroad  in  the 
time  prohibited,  are  captured,  charged  with  breaking 
the  law,  and  put  upon  their  trial.  Would  any  judge, 
knowing  the  capacity  of  the  men,  and  the  means  of 
knowledge  within  their  reach,  listen  for  a  moment  to 
the  plea,  we  never  heard  the  proclamation,  and  were 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  law  in  this  matter.  No.  The 
judge  would  say,  you  are  persons  who  can  read  and 
understand ;  this  proclamation  was  published  in  your 
streets,  and  placarded  in  the  most  frequented  places ; 
you  were  indisposed  to  become  acquainted  with  it, 
you  are  responsible  for  the  consequences,  and  must 


^ 


290  INDIFFERENTISM ;    OR   THE    DENIAL 

endure  the  stated  penalty.  Now,  it  is  on  this  prin- 
ciple, we  hold,  that  men,  having  available  means  of 
coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  yet  indis- 
posed to  avail  themselves  of  them,  having  the  Bible 
within  their  reach  and  yet  refusing  to  read  it,  having 
the  Gospel  at  the  very  threshold  of  their  doors  and 
yet  unwilling  to  come  out  and  hear  it ;  it  is  on  this 
principle,  we  maintain,  that  their  responsibility  is  little 
less  than  if  they  knew  that  Bible,  and  understood  the 
truths  of  that  Gospel.  A  man  may  say,  1  did  not 
know  that  the  Book  prohibited  such  a  course  of  con- 
duct, and  threatened  such  penalties  against  those  who 
pursued  it.  I  did  not  know  that  it  prescribed  such  a 
path  to  be  followed,  and  promised  such  blessings  to 
those  who  entered  upon  and  prosecuted  it.  There 
would  be  force  in  such  a  plea  coming  from  an 
individual  so  situated  as  that  it  was  physically  im- 
possible for  him  to  have  access  to  the  divine  record, 
to  read  and  understand  it.  But  the  answer  to  an 
individual  having  access  to  ample  means,  and  urging 
such  a  plea,  would  be :  you  had  the  volume  near  you 
and  could  have  read  it,  you  had  the  Gospel  within 
hearing  and  could  have  listened  to  it,  you  were 
indisposed  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
Bin  lies  at  your  own  door,  your  responsibility  is  to  be 
measured  not  by  your  inclination  but  by  your  privi- 
leges. "  Unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  the 
same  much  shall  be  required." 

4th.  Our  fourth  remark  is,  that  responsibility  remains 
indestructible  amid  all  objections  from  original  tempera- 
ment and  external  influences.     It  is  not  necessary  that 


OF  man's  responsibility.  291 

we  here  pronounce  any  judgment  on  the  claims  of 
phrenology  to  be  regarded  as  a  system  of  intellectual 
philosophy.  We  would  only  say,  that  as  long  as  any 
of  the  results  of  comparative  anatomy  disagree  with 
it,  and  physiologists  of  the  first  rank  can  urge  some 
strong  objections  against  it,  so  long  must  we  regard 
it  as  far  from  being  a  fixed  and  settled  science.  But 
assuming  that  the  physiological  facts  upon  which-  it 
is  grounded  are  correct,  that  the  feelings  or  faculties 
of  the  mind  are  in  proportion  to  and  determined  by 
the  protuberances  in  the  cranium,  human  liberty  and 
accountability  are  not,  as  some  have  alleged,  affected 
thereby.  Mr.  George  Combe,  who  advances  such 
high  claims  for  the  science,  obviously  thought  it  con- 
sistent with  responsibility,  when  he  says,  "  to  the 
animal  nature  of  man  have  been  added,  by  a  bountiful 
Creator,  moral  sentiments  and  reflecting  faculties, 
which  not  only  place  him  above  all  other  creatures 
on  earth,  but  constitute  him  a  different  being  from 
any  of  them,  a  rational  and  accountable  being."  ^  But 
some  men,  with  the  phrenological  map  of  the  human 
skull  before  them,  and  knowing  it  to  be  a  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  science  that  mental  disposi- 
tions are  determined  by  the  form,  size,  and  constitu- 
tion of  the  brain,  leap  at  once  to  the  conclusion  that 
an  individual's  character  is  made  for  him  not  by  him, 
and  that  for  it  he  is  not  responsible.  It  were  vain  to 
deny  an  original  difference  of  temperament  and  organ- 
ization  in  different  individuals,   or  to  underrate   the 

'   Constitution  of  Man,  p.  2.     (People's  edition.) 


292  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

difficulties  arising  thence  in  reference  to  man's  moral 
agency,  but  the  admission  of  these  can  be  made  while 
firmly  holding  the  doctrine  of  responsibility.  That  is 
a  matter  of  consciousness,  a  fact  in  the  natural  history 
of  man,  of  which  it  were  needless  to  seek  any  further 
explanation,  and  it  consequently  must  harmonize  witli 
all  the  other  facts  and  principles  of  the  human  con- 
stitution. But  this  is  not  all.  Some  men  have 
originally,  it  is  admitted,  powerful  tendencies  to 
certain  vicious  dispositions  and  practices.  Such  pro- 
pensities may  be  said  to  ally  them  to  the  brutal 
tribes ;  and,  were  they  not  possessed  of  a  higher 
order  of  faculties,  they  would  stand  on  the  same 
level  of  irresponsibility.  But  man  is  distinguished 
from  the  lower  animals,  by  the  possession  of  facul- 
ties, and  a  susceptibility  of  motives,  of  which  they  are 
destitute  and  incapable.  These  raise  the  worst  of 
men  above  the  level  of  the  brutes,  place  them  within 
the  sphere  of  moral  agency,  and  give  them  a  power 
of  counteracting  or  controlling  an  original  bad  tem- 
perament. We  take  an  extreme  case  for  illustration. 
It  was  said,  by  Spurzheim,  of  Alexander  the  sixth,  the 
most  infamous  man  that  ever  sat  on  the  papal  chair, 
that  his  "  brain  was  no  more  adequate  to  the  mani 
festation  of  Christian  virtues,  than  the  brain  of  an 
idiot  from  birth  to  the  exhibition  of  the  intellect  of  a 
Leibnitz  or  a  Bacon."  ^  Here  were  great  difficulties 
arising  from  original  temperament  and  organization , 
but  these  difficulties  were  not  of  the  same  kind,  uoi 
insuperable  in  the  same  manner,  as  the  difficulties 
'  Combe's  Constitution  of  Man,  p.  42. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  293 

that  beset  tlie  mind  of  tlie  idiot.  Alexandei  was 
endowed  with  mental  faculties,  and  a  susceptibility 
of  moral  motives,  which  gave  him  a  power  counteract- 
ive of  the  evil  propensities,  and  rendered  him,  in 
some  measure,  the  trustee  of  his  own  well-being,  and 
responsible  for  his  moral  character.  It  may  have 
been  a  vastly  more  difficult  thing  for  such  a  man  to 
manifest  Christian  virtues,  than  it  was  for  Philip 
Melancthon  ;  but  conscience  must  have  been  torn 
wholly  out  of  his  breast,  and  he  must  originally  have 
been  utterly  incapable  of  moral  sentiment,  before  he 
could  have  been  divested  of  the  character  of  a  moral 
and  responsible  agent.  The  pontiff,  though  carried 
along  in  a  vicious  course  by  powerful  depraved 
tendencies,  was  doubtless  conscious  of  his  moral 
freedom ;  and,  unless  given  up  to  a  reprobate  mind, 
must  at  times  have  had  a  sense  of  his  responsibility. 
It  is  as  natural  for  such  men,  amid  all  their  depravity, 
to  have  a  sense  of  desert  before  the  process  of  searing 
the  conscience  has  been  completed,  and  for  others  to 
hold  them  responsible  for  their  dispositions  and  con- 
duct, as  it  is  for  the  idiot  to  be  undisturbed  by  such 
a  feeling,  and  to  be  accounted  guiltless  of  the  evil 
that  may  arise  out  of  his  actions. 

The  remarks  made  in  reference  to  organization  are 
substantially  applicable  to  external  influences.  Both 
may  modify  human  responsibility,  but  neither  of 
them  destroys  it.  The  temperament  and  situation  of 
one  man  may  be  much  more  favorable  for  mani- 
festing whatsoever  things  are  lovely  and  true  than  the 
temperament   and   situation   of   another,    but   respon- 


294  INDIFFEEENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

sibility  is  an  attribute  of  the  character   and   circum- 
stances of  both.      If  there  is  power  on   the  side  of 
individual    organization    and    outward   influences,    so 
that  some  men  are  less  favorably  situated  in  a  moral 
point    of   view   than    others,  there   is   power   also  in 
those    energies    supplied   by  the   moral  world  which 
are  counteractive  of  evil  and  productive  of  good,  and 
which   men    are   under    an   obligation    to   study  and 
employ.       They   may   refuse   to   acquaint   themselves 
with   these   moral  forces,  or   to   avail   themselves   of 
them,  and  thus   be  carried  away  without   a   struggle 
on    the   current  of  depraved   propensity  or    external 
vicious  influences ;  but  in  that  refusal  lies  their  guilt, 
as  in  the  availableness  of  the  moral  power  lies  their 
responsibility.     It    is    an    easy   thing    to   muster   up 
arguments  against  human  liberty.      Let  the  doctrine 
of    the   Divine   prescience   and   foreordination   of  all 
things  be  asserted,  and  some  men  at  once  conclude 
that  no  room  is  left  for  man's  moral  freedom.      The 
doctrine  does  not  paralyze  their  energies  in  the  work- 
shop or   in   the  field,  and  they  never  dream   that  it 
renders  them  irresponsible  for  the  operations  of  their 
hands.      And   yet  the  objection   is  as  tenable   in  the 
one  case   as  in  the  other.     In   like   manner,  let   the 
force  of  original  temperament    and    external  circum- 
stances be  admitted,  and  man,  by  some,  is  represented 
as  helpless  and  destitute  of  moral  freedom,  as  a  raft 
carried  irresistibly  down  the  river  on  which  it  floats. 
It  is  not  so  easy,  however,  to  destroy  the  argument 
grounded  on  the  facts  that  man  is  possessed  of  facul- 
ties and  susceptible  of  motives  that  give  him,  in  some 


OF    man's    KidPOXSIBILITY.  295 

measure,  a  control  over  original  temperament  and 
external  circumstances.  Far  less  easy  is  it  to  destroy 
that  consciousness  of  moral  freedom  which  every 
man  possesses,  whatever  be  his  mental  conformation, 
and  the  influences  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon 
him.  If,  then,  the  sense  of  responsibility  cannot  be 
destroyed,  without  falsifying  the  testimony  of  all  our 
primitive  beliefs,  it  may  be  said  to  remain  truly 
indestructible. 

5th.  Our  fifth  remark  is,  that  men  individually^  and 
societies  in  general^  advance  morally  in  proportion  as 
the  sense  of  responsibility  is  high.  No  one  doubts  the 
absolute  necessity  of  a  belief  in  this  doctrine,  in  the 
daily  business  of  life.  The  dealings  of  the  shop  and 
the  exchange  could  not  be  carried  on  without  it.  We 
would  not  intrust  a  servant  with  a  letter,  or  admit  a 
professed  friend  into  the  confidence  and  hospitalities 
of  the  domestic  circle,  if  they  avowed  themselves  to  be 
irresponsible  and  acted  on  the  avowal.  From  the 
first  minister  of  an  empire  which  kisses  the  hand  of 
majesty  on  receiving  of&ce,  down  to  the  private  soldier 
who  takes  the  oath  of  allegiance  on  entering  the 
ranks,  the  necessity  and  reality  of  responsibility  are 
acknowledged.  And  not  only  so,  but  it  is  just  in 
proportion  as  the  notion  of  responsibility  in  indi- 
viduals, or  in  societies,  assumes  a  decidedly  religious 
aspect  that  it  is  powerful  for  good.  France,  a  country 
where  experiments  on  human  nature,  on  a  large  scale, 
have  often  been  made,  gave  at  the  close  of  the  last  cen- 
tury a  fearfid  illustration  of  what  the  social  system 
becomes  when  it  loses  its  hold  of  moral  obligation 


296  INDIFFEREXTISM  ;    OH,    THE    DENIAL 

The  philosophers  and  Avits  of  the  Voltaire  school 
jestingly  cried  out  "  what  is  truth,"  declared  the  moral 
system  to  have  been  superseded,  ridiculed  the  notion 
of  responsibility  as  an  antiquated  fiction,  taught  that 
the  only  causes  in  the  world  are  physical  and  irre- 
sistible, and  that  men  are  the  offspring  of  an  invinci- 
ble necessity.  It  was  this  doctrine  of  irresponsibility, 
propounded  by  the  encyclopaedists,  countenanced  by 
statesmen,  and  propagated  throughout  the  masses, 
that  was  expressed  in  the  torrents  of  blood  that  flowed 
during  the  reign  of  terror.  Men  being  looked  upon 
as  creatures  of  physical  necessity,  were  no  more  ac- 
counted of  than  stumps  of  trees  or  ruined  houses, 
when  they  stood  in  the  way  of  the  revolutionary 
movement.  They  were  levelled  to  the  ground  and 
torn  up  by  the  root's.  The  principle,  laid  down  by 
Diderot,  was  acted  upon, — a  principle  that  rose  out  of 
the  ruins  of  man's  moral  agency, — that  those  who 
encumbered  the  social  system  should  summarily  be 
destroyed.  And  what  more  is  necessary  to  let  loose 
the  reins  upon  fury,  corruption,  and  massacre,  than  to 
instil  into  men's  minds  the  notion  that  they  are  the 
creatures  of  fate,  and  no  more  responsible  for  their 
belief  than  for  the  color  of  their  skin  and  the  height 
of  their  stature  ! 

It  is  very  much  with  the  doctrine  of  man's  respon- 
sibility as  it  is  with  sabbath  observance.  Public  men 
in  our  country  generally  acknowledge  the  moral  and 
physical  advantages  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest,  just  as 
they  recognize  the  utility  and  necessity  of  a  sense  of 
accountabilitv   being;    diffused   throuc^hout   the    State. 


OF  man's  responsibility.  297 

But,  as  by  far  the  most  valuable  benefits  of  the  sab- 
bath result  only  from  its  religious  observance  as  a  day 
sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ; 
so  the  real  and  high  advantages  of  responsibility  are 
only  experienced  when  the  doctrine  is  felt  to  link 
earth  with  heaven,  man  with  his  Maker,  and  the 
judgment  of  conscience  with  the  judgment  of  the 
great  white  throne.  "  This  practical  doctrine  of  re- 
sponsibility," says  Isaac  Taylor,^  "can  rest  on  no  ful- 
crum short  of  the  centre  of  the  universe — the  throne 
of  God.  Rest  it  at  any  intermediate  point,  and 
though  it  may  bear  some  stress,  it  will  not  bear  every 
stress;  and  it  fails  where  most  it  will  be  needed." 
Take  an  individual,  or  a  community,  in  which  the 
sense  of  responsibility  is  weakened,  or  associated 
merely  with  worldly  calculations;  and  take  another 
individual  or  community  in  which  it  is  religious  and 
vivid ;  and  it  will  be  found  that  while  the  one  is  un- 
stable as  water,  the  other  is  steadfast  as  a  rock ;  that 
while  the  one  is  ever  in  danger  of  sacrificing  principle 
to  selfish  gain,  the  other  counts  nothing  dear  that 
comes  into  competition  with  principle  itself  It  is 
the  man  deeply  imbued  with  the  religious  sense  of 
responsibility  that  stands  firm  amid  all  temptations, 
while  another  is  driven  with  the  wind  and  tossed; 
and  it  is  in  the  former  that  even  men,  who  have  no 
vivid  sense  of  religion  themselves,  prefer  reposing 
confidence. 

It  will  also  be  found  that  in   societies   professedly 
religious,  where  the  dry  skeleton  of  a  creed  remains, — ■ 
'  Man  Responsible,  p.  63. 


298  INDIFFERENTISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

but  where  men  nominally  adhering  and'  others  avow- 
edly opposing  are  gathered  under  one  ecclesiastical 
organization  around  it, — the  doctrine  of  responsibility, 
in  its  high  import,  is  either  denied,  or  fluctuating  and 
feeble.  Wherever  religious  belief  comes  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  accident  of  the  mind  just  as  color  is 
of  the  hair  of  the  head,  or  wherever  responsibility, 
though  admitted,  is  languid, — doctrinal  articles  are 
counted  as  of  little  worth,  the  standards  are  either 
deserted,  or  friends  and  foes  proclaim  a  truce,  and 
shake  hands  around  them;  and  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  world, — a  distinction  so 
much  insisted  on  in  the  New  Testament, — disappears 
and  is  lost. 

Individuals  of  the  brightest  moral  excellence  have 
been  those  who  were  influenced  by  a  high  and  relig- 
ious sense  of  responsibility.  Men,  to  whose  instru- 
mentality the  world  owes  its  reformations,  and  the 
church  its  life  and  purity,  would  never  have  struggled 
as  they  did,  and  could  never  have  effected  the  regen- 
erations which  they  have  effected,  had  they  not  had 
firm  faith  in  the  truth  that  we  are  responsible  to  our 
fellows  here  and  to  God  hereafter.  And  those  com- 
munities in  w^hich  the  truth  shines  conspicuous  as  a 
star,  and  who  have  faithfully  guarded  the  church  from 
the  abomination  of  desolation,  have  been  mightily 
influenced  by  the  idea  of  their  stewardship  and  the 
prospect  of  rendering  an  account.  Is  then  a  doctrine 
so  influential  for  good  both  on  individuals  and  so- 
cieties, on  churches  and  states;  a  doctrine  that  has 
been  the  guardian  of  so  much  that  is  true  and  holy, 


OF  man's  responsibility.  299 

and  the  spring  of  so  nicany  grand  and  benignant  en- 
terprises ;  a  doctrine  that  is  beneficent  in  proportion 
as  it  is  believed  and  acted  upon, — is  it  to  be  regarded 
as  a  beautiful  and  useful  fiction,  necessary  for  the 
well-being  of  society,  but  having  no  foundation  in 
truth?  This  were  something  like  yielding  to  the 
tempter,  and  falling  down  and  worshipping  him.  But 
it  cannot  be.  It  is  written  upon  the  heart — q,nd 
nothing  but  a  long  process  of  vicious  indulgence  can 
cover  or  efface  it ;  it  is  written  upon  the  social  system 
under  which  men  live  safely  and  happily ;  and  it  is 
written  more  legibly  and  impressively  in  the  inspired 
page, — that  every  one  of  us  must  give  an  account  of 
himself  unto  God.  Happy  the  individual,  or  the 
community,  who  moves  under  a  felt  sense  that  the 
Great  Searcher  of  hearts  is  in  the  heavens  and  looks 
down  upon  men,  and  that  he  will  hereafter  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness,  and  render  to  all  according  to 
their  works. 


CHAPTER  YL 

THE   DENIAL   OF   THE   POWER   OF    GODLINESS;    OR, 
FORMALISM. 

Not  Infidelity  in  theory,  but  in  practice — Nature  of  formalism — Prer 
alency  of  it  —  Philosophy  of  formalism  —  Religions  of  ancient 
heathen  world  generally  of  this  description — Many  of  our  men  of 
taste  and  science  chargeable  with  it — Remark  of  Foster — Strong 
tendency  to  formalism  in  the  ancient  Hebrews — Pharisees  of  the 
Christian  age — Formalism  in  the  Christian  Church — Result  of 
Romish  theory  of  fellowship — The  Oxford  Ritual — Remarks  of 
Morell,  D'Aubigne,  and  Taylor  —  Formalism  not  peculiar  to 
Romanism  or  Tractarianism — General  remarks  on  it : — Its  utter 
worthlessness  to  satisfy  the  great  wants  of  human  nature — The 
pleasure  found  in  spiritual  religion  not  experienced — Its  tendency 
to  intolerance — Diametrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  precepts  of 
the  Gospel. 

Here  we  advance  from  tlie  region  of  speculative  into 
that  of  practical  infidelity.  All  the  body  of  truth 
previously  noticed,  which  some  men  have  denied 
wholly  or  in  part,  is  supposed  to  be  admitted;  but 
the  grand  influence  of  that  truth  on  the  conscience 
and  conduct  is  virtually  disowned.  The  primal  truth 
that  God  is,  the  self-existent,  independent,  and  all- 
perfect  One, — is  unhesitatingly  assented  to ;  but  the 
practical  testimony  to  that  truth,  which  is  given  in 
enduring  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,  is  withheld. 


FORMALISM.  .  301 

The  proofs  of  the  being  and  character  of  God,  drawn 
from  the  phenomena  of  mind  and  matter,  convince 
the  understanding ;  but,  amid  all  the  light  that  beams 
from  these  phenomena,  the  heart  is  alienated  and 
darkened.  That  God  is  really  a  Person — not  a  merely 
infinite  substance — a  Person  related  to  us  as  Father  and 
Lord,  Saviour  and  Judge,  is  not  questioned ;  but  there 
is  no  devout  recognition  of  Him  as  being,  in  these 
relations,  the  glorious  and  gracious  One  with  whom 
we  haye  to  do.  The  no  less  well-attested  truth  that 
God  is  ever-present  with  and  exercises  a  minute  in- 
spection and  control  over  his  creatures,  has  a  place 
Tviilingly  assigned  to  it  among  the  things  believed ; 
but  there  is  an  utter  absence  of  the  manifested  power 
of  that  truth,  in  (as  Scripture  significantly  expresses 
it)  walking  with  God.  The  Bible  doctrines  of  re- 
demption, including  and  presupposing  as  they  do, 
the  guilt  and  depravity  of  man,  the  atonement  of 
Christ,  and  the  regenerating  influences  of  the  Spirit, 
are  essential  parts  of  the  creed ;  but  that  creed  is  like 
the  dry  lifeless  skeleton,  the  body  without  the  spirit. 
The  man  never  thinks  of  questioning  the  dark  doc- 
trines of  sin,  but  he  is  not  penitent  and  humble  under 
the  conviction  of  his  own  sinful  character.  He  mus- 
ters up  no  argument  against  the  work  that  expiates 
and  the  influences  that  sanctify,  he  no  more  doubts 
that  they  are  truths  in  the  Bible  than  he  doubts  that 
the  sun  is  in  the  heavens ;  but  he  is  not  found  stand- 
ing on  that  work,  or  living  under  the  power  of  those 
influences,  any  more  than  if  their  existence  and  effi- 
cacy were  restricted  to  some  distant  world.     He  would 


302  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

no  more  think  of  denying  that  man  is  responsible  for 
his  dispositions,  opinions,  and  conduct,  than  of  deny- 
ing that  he  thinks,  feels,  and  acts.  Words  implying 
moral  agency  and  accountability  are  ever  flowing  over 
his  lips,  and  yet  his  habitual  sentiments  and  conduct 
are  such  as  could  only  be  formed  under  an  habitual 
forgetfulness  of  Him  vs^hose  eyes  behold  and  whose 
eyelids  try  the  children  of  men.  There  is  no  infi- 
delity in  theory,  but  there  is  abundance  of  it  in  prac- 
tice. In  so  far  as  the  mere  letter  of  a  creed  is  con- 
cerned, all  may  be  evangelical  and  correct ;  but  the 
inner  and  outer  man  are  as  little  influenced  by  it  as 
by  the  abrogated  notions  of  the  Ptolemaic  system. 
There  is  religion,  but  it  is  merely  professional  and 
verbal.  "The  sign  is  taken  for  the  thing,  the  counter 
for  the  money,"  The  structure  is  complete  as  regards 
shape,  size,  and  bones;  but  the  flesh  and  blood,  the 
sparkling  eye  and  the  agile  limbs  are  wanting.  This 
is  what  the  Scripture  means  when  it  speaks  of  m,en 
having  the  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power 
thereof 

Formalism  is  the  tendency  of  the  mind  to  rest  in 
the  mere  externals  of  religion,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
inner  life  of  religion  itself  It  is  just  as  when  a  child 
runs  his  lessons  rapidly  over  without  heeding  the  im- 
port of  the  story  which  he  reads.  It  is  just  as  if  our 
knowledge  of  a  man  was  confined  to  his  stature,  to 
the  shape  and  color  of  his  coat;  so  that,  when  his 
name  is  mentioned  in  our  presence,  we  immediately 
think  of  his  size  and  dress  but  nothing  more.  It  is 
the  folly  of  valuing  the  tree  for  its  bark,  instead  of  its 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  303 

goodly  timber ;  the  folly  of  choosing  a  book  for  its 
binding,  irrespective  of  the  nature  of  its  contents ;  the 
folly  of  delighting  in  painted  windows  and  adorned 
walls,  regardless  of  the  character  of  the  society  and 
the  accommodation  within.  It  is  the  very  essence  of 
formalism  to  set  the  outward  institutions  above  the 
inward  truths,  to  be  punctilious  in  going  the  round 
of  ceremonial  observances  while  neglectful  of  those 
spiritual  sacrifices  with  which  God  is  well  pleased,  to 
substitute  means  in  the  room  of  ends,  and  to  rest  in 
the  type  and  symbol  without  rising  to  the  glorious 
reality.  It  will  stand  up  for  the  skeleton  creed,  though 
the  life  be  as  little  influenced  by  it  as  by  a  mummy  ; 
it  will,  in  the  strength  of  its  zeal,  put  on  armor, 
brandish  weapons,  guard  the  courts  of  the  sanctuary 
from  unhallowed  intrusion,  and  shout  lustily,  "  the 
temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord  are  we ;" 
while  it  lacks  heart  for  fighting  the  good  fight  of  faith, 
and  wrestling  with  spiritual  wickednesses.  The  church 
and  the  sacraments,  the  symbol  and  the  lettered  creed, 
fill  the  sphere  of  its  vision,  and  draw  forth  its  devotion, 
to  the  almost  utter  exclusion  of  those  grand  spiritual 
objects  that  are  unseen  and  eternal.  Such,  in  general, 
is  the  character  of  formalism. 

It  is  not  a  thing  peculiar  to  any  age  or  country, 
"thou"-h  it  may  be  more  prevalent  at  one  time  and  in 
one  place  than  in  another.  Wherever  there  is  a  field, 
we  meet  with  weeds  or  thorns ;  and  wherever  humanity 
dwells,  we  Avitncss,  to  some  extent  or  another,  for 
malism.  We  may  travel  over  a  large  tract  of  inhabited 
country,  and  find  there  no  such  monster  as  absolute 


304  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

atheism  ;  we  may  meet  with  large  masses  of  men 
among  whom  pantheism,  or  naturalism,  has  scarcely 
a  local  habitation ;  we  may  enter  into  one  crowded 
congregation  after  another,  and  hear  the  doctrines  of 
Socinianism,  of  a  false  spiritualism,  and  of  irrespon- 
sibility, repudiated ;  but  formalism  is  a  thing  at  hand 
as  well  as  afar  off,  it  lies  everywhere  about  us,  many- 
colored  and  many-shaped,  sometimes  gorgeously 
decked  and  at  other  times  meanly  clad,  sometimes 
prominently  manifested  and  at  other  times  scarcely 
perceptible.  Man  will  worship.  It  seems  to  be  as 
natural  for  him  to  have  something  in  the  shape  of 
religion  as  it  is  for  him  to  have  a  place  to  dwell  in. 
And  there  may  not  be  a  greater  variety  in  the  habita- 
tions which  he  constructs,  than  in  the  religions  which 
he  adopts.  The  gradation,  in  the  one  case,  varying 
from  the  gorgeous  palace  to  the  hole  dug  in  the  earth, 
may  not  be  more  than  the  gradation  in  the  other, — 
varying  from  a  purely  spiritual  Christianity,  to  the 
lowest  form  of  fetichism  or  nature-worship.  And  not 
more  true  is  it  that  man  will  have  a  religion,  than,  if 
left  to  himself,  he  will  choose  a  corrupt  one,  or  corrupt 
a  spiritual  one  into  a  system  of  formalism. 

Here  is  a  principle  in  man  which  leads  him  out  of 
himself  to  worship  and  perform  religious  services. 
That  principle,  in  a  holy  being,  would  fix  his  thoughts* 
and  affections  on  the  most  excellent  glory;  and  the 
forms  which  he  employed  would  only  be  used  as  sym- 
bols of  eternal  realities,  or  means  by  which  to  rise  up 
to  the  Supreme  Good.  But  that  principle  in  man,  as 
he  now  is,  participates  in  the  depravity  of  his  nature ; 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  305 

and  wliile  it  goes  fortli  after  a  religion,  it  is  one  which, 
though  demanding  much  bodily  service,  lies  very 
lightly  on  the  conscience  and  heart ;  one  which  says, 
go  this  round  and  that,  but  seldom  or  never  summons 
the  soul  to  an  earnest  conflict  with  the  power  of  evil. 
Man  will  have  a  religion,  but  depraved  man  will  have 
a  formal  instead  of  a  spiritual  one, — one  consisting 
in  mere  outward  observances,  in  preference  to  one  re- 
quiring the  homage  of  the  heart  and  the  consecration 
of  the  life.  The  philosophy  of  formalism  is,  therefore, 
easily  explained.  It  is  the  result  of  two  opposing 
forces.  The  one  of  which  will  not  let  man  live  with- 
out a  religion,  and,  if  undisturbed  by  hostile  influences, 
would  lead  him  spiritually  to  worship  God  who  is  a 
spirit.  The  other  is  of  the  earth  earthy,  and,  by  its 
greater  potency,  prevents  the  former  in  the  natural 
man  from  rising  above  rites  and  ceremonies,  above  the 
symbol  and  the  lettered  creed.  An  adjustment  or 
compromise  of  the  claims  of  two  rival  parties  takes 
place.  The  one  pointing  the  thoughts  and  affections 
upward  to  God,  and  the  other  seeking  to  draw  them 
away  from  him.  Both  are  persuaded  to  meet  and 
shake  hands  over  a  religious  form,  and  thus  the  formei 
is  hoodwinked  while  the  latter  triumphs. 

Our  object,  more  especially,  is  to  notice  the  for- 
malism that  lies  within  the  domain  of  revealed 
truth,  or  that  is  thrown  up  within  the  pale  of  the 
visible  church.  But  before  doing  so,  ive  may  glance 
at  some  of  the  formalism  that  lies  beyond.  In  fact, 
that  is  formalism,  be  it  baptized  pagan  or  Christian, 
natural  religion  or   revealed,  which,   though  bearing 

20 


306  FORMALISM  ;     OR,    THE    DENIAL 

the  name  af  a  religious  belief,  exerts  no  influence 
in  transforming  the  character,  and  produces  no  love 
and  likeness  to  God.  The  religions  of  the  ancient 
heathen  world  were  generally  of  this  description. 
What  were  the  creeds  and  rites  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
but  splendid  and  imposing  systems  of  formalism? 
Objects  of  religious  worship  met  the  Greek,  or 
Roman,  wherever  he  turned  his  eyes.  Every  street 
down  which  he  passed,  every  house  into  which  he 
entered,  every  fountain  at  which  he  drank,  and  the 
summit  of  every  little  hill  on  which  he  stood,  re- 
minded him  of  the  divinities  that  he  was  to  adore. 
Religion  blended  itself  with  almost  every  piece  of 
daily  business  that  he  performed,  with  almost  every 
journey  that  he  took,  and  with  nearly  every  amuse- 
ment that  he  witnessed.  There  were  numerous  and 
magnificent  temples  into  which  he  could  enter.  There 
was  a  gorgeous  and  attractive  mythology  with  which 
he  was  familiar.  There  were  statues  and  paintings 
everywhere,  on  which  unrivalled  art  depicted  to  his 
view  things  sacred  and  divine.  And  there  were  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  the  most  engrossing  description 
which  he  was  ever  called  upon  to  observe.  But,  amid 
all  this  sensible  pomp  and  grandeur,  there  was  no 
provision  for  the  wants  of  the  inner  man.  Heathen- 
ism had  no  line  to  reach  the  depths  of  human 
depravity,  and  no  power  to  raise  man  up  from  his 
degradation,  to  break  the  spell  by  which  he  was 
bound  to  sensual  objects,  and  to  set  his  spirit  free. 
It  had  no  object  of  religious  worship  fitted  to  call 
forth   love,   veneration,   gratitude ;    and   no  body  of 


OF   THE   POWER   OP    GODLINESS.  307 

truth  that  could  be  instrumental  in  purifying  and 
ennobling  man's  mental  powers,  in  connecting  him 
with  the  higher  world,  and  renewing  him  after  the 
image  of  God.  It  was  a  system  every  way  fitted  to 
gratify  and  strengthen  the  tendency  in  human  nature 
to  rest  in  mere  external  symbols,  regardless  of  spirit- 
ual and  invisible  realities.  The  heathen  duly  went  his 
round  of  religious  observances,  but  it  was  merely  a 
round  of  formalism. 

Much  of  the  same  thing  constitutes  the  religion  of 
many  of  our  men  of  taste  and  science.  We  give 
forth  no  sweeping  condemnation  against  philosophers 
as  a.  class.  Not  a  few  of  them  have  been,  and  are, 
spiritually-minded  men, — men  who,  while  prosecut- 
ing enthusiastically  their  researches  into  nature, 
have  held  high  converse  with  nature's  God.  But, 
against  a  large  proportion  of  them,  must  be  brought 
the  charge  of  formalism.  They  are  conversant  with, 
and  have  much  admiration  for,  the  material  types. 
But  there  they  rest.  As  if  afraid  of  being  counted 
pietists  or  fanatics,  they  guard  their  researches 
effectually  from  the  intrusion  of  the  living  God,  and 
shrink  from  having  their  language  imbued  with  any 
thing  approaching  to  a  deep  devotional  feeling.  In 
the  case  of  such  individuals,  the  existence  and 
providential  agency  of  the  Holy  One  may  be  ad- 
mitted, but  the  admission  is  only  formal,  not  elevat- 
ing, and  consecrating.  There  would  be  no  difficulty 
in  getting  them  to  acknowledge  that  the  Great 
Eternal  Spirit  sits  behind  all  those  v/ondrous  crea- 
tions that  meet  their  eye,  that  the  heavens  are  bright 


308  FORMALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

with  liis  glory,  and  the  earth  full  of  his  praise ;  but 
there  is  a  difficulty  in  getting  them  to  allow  thai 
truth  to  occupy  its  legitimate  position  in  their  minds, 
and  to  exert  its  legitimate  influence  over  their 
thoughts  and  speculations.  There  is  in  them  no 
lack  of  sensibility  to  the  grand  and  beautiful  assem- 
blage of  natural  phenomena.  They  may  feel  a 
kindling  of  fancy,  and  an  aggrandizement  of  thought, 
in  looking,  from  some  eminence,  over  a  magnificent 
region,  rich  in  all  the  elements  of  sublime  and  grace- 
ful scenery ;  or,  in  taking  a  telescopic  vicAV  of  the 
innumerable  worlds  that  move  harmoniously  through- 
out the  fields  of  space ;  but  there  is  apparently  a  sad 
want  of  the  capacity  of  rising  from  the  grandeur 
and  loveliness  of  creation  up  to  the  infinitely  greater 
grandeur  and  loveliness  of  creation's  God, — a  sad 
Avant  of  being  moved  and  subdued  under  the  impress- 
ion that  He  who  is  supremely  good  reigns  over  all 
these  scenes,  is  present  in  every  star  and  atom, 
witnesses  every  thought  and  feeling,  and  will  one 
day  call  us  to  account.  The  world  has  tolerated  not 
a  few  books  in  the  shape  of  travels  and  journals,  in 
which  the  writers  have  been  more  careful  to  tell  us 
how  many  miles  they  passed  over  in  a  day,  how  they 
slept  and  were  fed,  than  to  make  us  acquainted  with 
the  moral  and  physical  aspects  of  the  country  and 
people  where  they  sojourned.  These  Avriters  are 
not  more  chargeable  with  a  want  of  good  taste  and 
natural  sensibility,  than  are  those  philosophers  and 
men  of  genius  to  whom  we  have  alluded,  chargeable 
with   being   insensible    to    the   glory   of    the   Divine 


OF   THE    POWER    OF    GODLINESS.  309 

character,  while  impressed  with  the  loveliness  and 
grandeur  of  the  Divine  works.  We  would  not  have 
our  men  of  science  and  cultivated  taste  to  turn 
theologians,  and  mingle  doctrinal  discussions  and 
prayers  with  their  descriptions  of  mental  and  mate- 
rial phenomena ;  but  we  would  have  them  to  rise  up 
from  the  magnificent  symbols  that  meet  their  eye, 
to  the  High  and  Holy  One  whose  perfections  they 
shadow  forth.  "It  is  unfortunate,"  says  John  Fos- 
ter,^ "I  have  thought  within  these  few  minutes, — 
while  looking  out  on  one  of  the  most  enchanting 
nights  of  the  most  interesting  season  of  the  year, 
and  hearing  the  voices  of  a  company  of  persons,  to 
whom  I  can  perceive  that  this  soft  and  solemn  shade 
over  the  earth,  the  calm  sky,  the  beautiful  stripes  of 
cloud,  the  stars,  and  the  waning  moon  just  risen, 
are  things  not  in  the  least  more  interesting  than  the 
walls,  ceiling,  and  candle-light  of  a  room."  But  it  is 
still  more  unfortunate  that  there  are  men  of  genius 
fascinated  and  elevated  by  the  grand  scenes  of 
earth  and  sky,  and  yet  unattracted  by  the  excellency 
of  God,  of  which  all  that  material  grandeur  and 
gracefulness  is  but  a  type.  It  is  sad  to  think  that 
the  thought  of  nature's  magnificence  should  so  often 
fail,  in  the  case  of  men  in  whom  that  thought  is  vivid, 
to  bring  in  its  train  the  more  ennobling  thought  of 
the  unrivalled  glory  of  the  Author  of  nature  himself 

■•  These  are  thy  glorious  worlvs,  Parent  of  good, 
Almighty  !   Thine  this  universal  frame, 
Thus  wondrous  fail':   Thyself  how  wondrous  then, 
Unspeakable  I" 

'  Foster's  Essays,  pp.  16,  17. 


310  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

It  is  not  of  such  a  writer  as  tlie  author  of 
"  CosrQos,"  who  has  given  us  a  great  picture  of 
nature  without  any  reference  to  the  living  God,  that 
we  are  now  speaking..  He  has,  at  least,  in  this 
melancholy  exclusion,  been  consistent  with  his  own 
established  belief,  "that  the  forces  inherent  in  mat- 
ter, and  those  which  govern  the  moral  world,  exercise 
their  action  under  the  control  of  primordial  neces- 
sity." But  it  is  of  those  of  our  men  of  taste  and 
science,  who,  while  acknowledging  the  truth  about 
God  as  the  Creator,  Preserver,  and  Moral  Governor  of 
the  universe,  seem  to  rest  in  the  mere  natural  phe- 
nomena; to  concentrate  there  all  their  thoughts,  and 
spend  there  all  their  feelings ;  and  can  carry  on  their 
researches,  and  give  us  graphic  and  useful  descriptions 
of  the  material  world,  without  being  led  themselves, 
or  attempting  to  lead  others,  to  the  contemplation  of 
Him  who  has  set  his  glory  above  the  heavens.  This, 
whatever  other  epithet  may  be  applied  to  it,  must  be 
denounced  as  mere  formalism. 

The  tendency,  in  the  domain  of  revealed  religion, 
to  halt  in  mere  forms,  was  strongly  evinced  by  the 
Hebrew  people.  The  Levitical  economy,  containing 
a  large  machinery  of  divinely-appointed  rites  and 
ceremonies,  though  cumbersome  compared  with 
the  dispensation  of  the  Gospel,  was  admirably  adapt- 
ed to  the  state  of  the  Israelites,  in  conveying  to 
their  minds,  and  preserving  in  the  midst  of  them, 
those  elements  of  Divine  truth  which  have  been 
fully  developed  in  all  their  simplicity  and  majesty  in 
the    Gospel    age.     But    their    history,    as    faithfully 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  311 

recorded  in  Scripture,  sliows  that  their  besetting  sin 
was  to  idolize  the  symbol,  instead  of  rising  from  it  to 
the  thing  signified ;  to  go  the  mere  round  of  external 
observances,  neglectful  of  the  cultivation  of  the 
heart  and  that  spiritual  worship  which  God  requires. 
And  it  deserves  notice  that,  in  the  same  record  where 
the  typical  and  ritual  system  is  so  fully  and  minutely 
detailed,  the  most  strict  cautions  are  given  against 
resting  in  it;  and  the  most  terrible  denunciations 
are  uttered  against  those  who  substitute  the  symbol 
in  the  place  of  the  invisible  reality.  The  burden  of 
prophecy  while  leading  the  mind  forward  to  the 
glory  of  the  latter  days,  and  seeking  to  concentrate 
the  thought  in  Him  who  was  emblematically  repre- 
sented in  every  lamb  that  bled  on  the  Hebrew  altars, 
contained  often  a  strong  rebuke  to  the  hollow  formal- 
ism that  prevailed.  The  divinely-appointed  rites 
were  repudiated  as  worthless,  when  men  converted 
them  into  idols,  and  failed  to  be  led  by  them  to  the 
high  spiritual  realities.  "Hath  the  Lord,"  said 
Samuel  to  Saul,  "as  great  delight  in  burnt-offerings 
and  sacrifices,  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of  the  Lord  ? 
Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams."  "  To  what  purpose 
is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?"  was  the 
question  which  Jehovah  addressed  to  the  punctilious 
formalists  among  the  ancient  Hebrews.  This  system 
of  religious  ceremonialism  appeared  in  all  its  odioua- 
ness  in  the  Pharisees  of  the  Gospels.  And  it  was 
against  the  men  who  were  scrupulously  exact  in 
paying  tithe  of  mint,  and  anise,  and  cummin,   while 


312  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

regardless  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law, — judg- 
ment, mercy,  and  faith,  that  the  meek  and  lowly 
Saviour  pronounced  the  most  tremendous  woes. 
Rigid  adherence  to  bare  rites  went  hand  in  hand 
with  the  most  gross  corruptions.  Men  would  stand 
up  and  stoutly  contend  for  the  mere  letter  of  the 
law,  while  shamelessly  violating  its  spirit.  The 
formalism  of  the  system  was  complete,  and  the 
Amen,  the  faithful  and  true  witness,  denounced  the 
hypocrisy  of  its  worshippers. 

The  new  economy  is  distinguished  from  the  old, 
by  its  greater  simplicity  and  spirituality.  It  has  no 
gorgeous  and  imposing  ritual.  The  schoolmaster, 
necessary  for  the  instruction  of  the  Jews,  has  been 
dismissed.  The  shadow  has  vanished  away  and 
given  place  to  the  substance.  And  the  hour  has 
come  when  neither  in  this  mountain  exclusively,  nor 
yet  at  Jerusalem,  men  should  be  required  to  worship 
the  Father,  but  when  the  true  worshippers  should  wor- 
ship him  in  spirit  and  truth  ;  for  the  Father  seeketh 
such  to  worship  Him.  But,  under  the  shadow  of  Chris- 
tianity, formalism  soon  grew  up,  and  extended  its  cold, 
withering  influence,  for  ages,  over  the  church.  Juda- 
izing  teachers — the  masters  of  forms, — insinuated 
themselves  into  the  first  Christian  societies,  and 
insisted  on  the  observance  of  abrogated  ceremonies 
as  indispensable  to  salvation.  Apostolic  vigilance 
and  zeal,  in  a  great  measure,  thwarted  their  perni- 
cious efforts,  and  preserved  the  truth  of  God  pure 
and  unclogged.  But,  soon  after  the  apostles  had 
fallen  asleep,    and   the    spiritual    energy  which   they 


OF   THE    POWER    OF    GODLINESS.  313 

had  infused  into  the  chnrcii  had  diminished,  the 
tendency  to  exalt  the  material  above  the  spiritual, 
and  bind  up  the  living  element  of  truth  in  a  system 
of  forms,  appeared  almost  unchecked.  The  symbols 
were  aggrandized,  and  occupied  the  place  of  the 
grand  realities.  The  inherent  efficacy  of  the  sacra- 
ment was  preached,  instead  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
cross.  And  that  deadly  dishonoring  system  of  pin- 
ning men's  faith  to  the  priest  and  the  mere  external 
rite,  of  identifying  baptism  with  regeneration,  and  of 
making  the  tithe  of  mint  and  anise,  and  cummin, 
a  substitute  for  the  practice,  and  a  plea  for  the 
omission,  of  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  almost 
everywhere  prevailed.  History  bears  witness  to  the 
fact  that,  the  darkest  period  in  the  annals  of  the 
church,  when  the  question  might  have  been  put 
were  the  Son  of  man  to  come,  would  he  find  faith 
in  the  earth  ?  was  the  period  when  Christianity  was 
ritual  bound,  ministers  and  people  as  intent  on  mere 
forms  as  the  heathen  on  idols. 

Such  is  the  result  of  the  Romish  theory  of  fellow- 
ship. Instead  of  making  the  church,  as  the  apostle 
Peter  did,  a  living  body,  composed  of  faithfid  men, 
who  "  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house, 
an  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices, 
acceptable  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ  ;"  it  has  set  up  a 
lifeless  artificial  system  of  mosaic  work,  the  essential 
qualifications  to  a  name  and  place  in  which  are,  not 
the  faith  of  the  truth  and  the  love  of  the  Saviour  as 
manifested  in  a  life  of  moral  loveliness,  but  a  strict 
attention   to   rites   and   ceremonies.     It   matters   not, 


314  FORMALISM  ;    OR,    THE    DENIAL 

according  to  this  theory,  how  much  glorying  there 
may  be  in  the  cross  of  Christ  on  the  part  of  indi- 
viduals, and  how  brightly  in  them  the  features  of  the 
new  creature  may  shine,  if  the  party  watch-word 
cannot  be  pronounced,  and  the  party  rite  cannot  be 
submitted  to,  there  is  no  recognition  of  them  as 
belonging  to  the  Israel  of  God.  It  is  in  accordance 
with  this  theory,  that  some  Romish  missionaries  have 
baptised  large  companies  of  the  heathen  in  a  mass, 
pronounced  over  them  the  name  of  Christ  before 
they  really  knew  who  Christ  was,  set  them  down  as 
children  of  the  truth  before  the  truth  had  gained  an 
inlet  into  their  minds,  and  reported  them  as  access- 
ions to  the  Holy  Catholic  Church, — which  is  just 
like  the  swelling  of  a  body  with  diseased  flesh.  "  We 
find,"  Mr.  Morell  truly  remarks,  "  as  the  result  of 
this  theory,  multitudes  of  the  most  debased,  most 
unscrupulous,  most  antichristian  of  mankind,  standing 
in  due  right  and  order,  as  channels  of  Christian 
truth  to  the  world;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
find  multitudes  of  the  humble,  the  holy,  the  self- 
denjing,  hopelessly  thrust  out  beyond  the  pale  of 
brotherhood,  as  not  being  in  the  legitimate  succession 
of  official  validity.  If  the  fellowship  of  the  faithful 
is  to  depend  upon  such  principles  as  these,  then  to 
make  it  at  all  intelligible  to  the  reason  or  consistent 
with  the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  we  need  altogether 
a  different  interpretation  of  the  whole  nature  and 
design  of  Christianity  from  what  we  have  in  the  life 
of  Christ  and  the  writings  of  the  apostles."'     There 

'  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  2G8. 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  315 

are,  doubtless,  not  a  few  spiritually-minded  men  in  the 
Romish  Church,  but  they  are  spiritually -minded  in  spite 
of  her  theory  of  fellowship.  As  a  whole,  it  is  a  gigan- 
tic system  of  formalism. 

Formalism  has  not,  however,  been  restricted  to  the 
ample  and  imposing  shades  of  Popery.  It  has  taken 
root  also,  grown  up,  and  been  carefully  fostered  in  the 
bosom  of  Protestantism.  The  Oxford  ritual,  as  it  has 
been  called,  makes  a  very  near  approach  to  that  of 
Rome.  And  the  doctrines  propounded  by  the  Trac- 
tarians,  viewed  as  a  wdiole,  come  in  direct  antagonism 
with  those  grand  spiritual  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, which  have  been  so  happily  expressed  by  Merle 
D'Aubigne :  The  Word  of  God  only  ;  the  Grace 
OF  Christ  only  ;  and  the  Work  of  the  Spirit 
only.  Their  theory  of  the  church,  and  of  the  efficacy 
of  its  rites,  is  the  very  theory  that  quenches  spiritual 
life,  dries  up  the  goodly  sap,  blights  every  green  thing, 
and  superinduces  a  dark  and  leaden  system  of  formal- 
ism. The  church  and  the  priest  come  between  the 
soul  of  the  sinner  and  the  Saviour;  and  the  church 
and  the  sacraments,  are  made  to  dispense  those  spir- 
itual influences  for  which  we,  as  Bible-taught,  look  to 
the  church's  Head.  Let  men  be  instructed,  as  mul- 
titudes of  our  fellow  countrymen  are,  that  the  sacra 
ments  are  the  wells  of  Divine  grace,  that  they  are 
efficacious  only  as  administered  by  the  hands  of  epis- 
copally  ordained,  men,  and  that  perishing  souls  can 
find  the  bread  of  life  only  in  this  particular  fold, — and, 
within  the  pale  of  the  Protestant  church,  will  soon  be- 
come rampant  a  system  that  will  eat  out  the  very  life  of 


316  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

the  gospel, — a  system  having  the  form  cf  godliness 
but  denying  the  power  thereof.  "  If  we  be  Christians 
ecclesiastically^  it  is  enough ;  all  besides  is  illusion," — is 
the  engrafted  word  which  thousands  of  cultivated  and 
uncultivated  minds  have  in  our  day,  received  within 
the  church  of  Cranmer.  "And  such  in  fact,"  says  Mr. 
Isaac  Taylor,  "are  every  day  seen  to  be  the  products 
of  the  ecclesiastical  theory  which  we  denounce  as,  at 
this  time,  the  antagonist  of  Spiritual  Christianity.  In 
its  recent  revival  it  has  shed  a  cold  arrogance  into  many 
bosoms  that  once  glowed  with  Christian  affection  ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  it  has  drawn  such  aside  (in  how  many 
sad  instances!)  from  an  enlightened  regard  to  the  sub- 
stantial truths  of  the  Gospel ;  while  they  give  all  their 
cares  to  frivolous  and  servile  observances."^ 

The  snake  is  to  be  found  creeping  among  the  grass, 
as  well  as  displaying  its  sinuous  form  under  some 
stately  plant  or  tree.  And  formalism  is  not  a  sin 
peculiar  to  Romanism  or  to  a  Romanized  Protestant- 
ism. It  is  to  be  met  with,  not  only  under  the  impos- 
ing shade  of  the  cathedral  pile,  clad  in  white  vest- 
ments, kneeling  before  the  altar,  clasping  to  the  bosom 
a  crucifix,  and  going  punctiliously  the  proscribed  round 
of  gorgeous  ceremonies ;  but  it  often  has  a  place  in 
the  plain  built  chapel,  and  on  the  low  wooden  form, 
where  no  sacramental  theory  has  ever  been  pro- 
pounded, where  a  creed  thoroughly  evangelical  has 
been  adopted,  and  where  nothing  but  the  pure  spir- 
itual Gospel  of  Christ  has  been  heard.  It  may  have 
a  much  more  ample  shelter,  and  be  much  more  coun 

'  Spiritual  Christianity,  p.  100. 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.         317 

tenanced  amid  great  architectural  spleudor,  vene- 
rated altars,  and  a  rich  ceremonial;  but  it  can  and 
does  exist  in  the  absence  of  everything  external  that 
is  fitted  to  rivet  the  eye,  regale  the  ear,  and  engross 
the  heart.  Men  may  place  a  false  dependence  on  the 
simplest  observances  as  well  as  on  the  most  artificial 
and  splendid,  and  there  may  lurk  as  deadly  and  hate- 
ful a  spirit  of  self-righteousness  under  an  appearance 
of  puritan  meekness,  as  ever  did  in  the  bosom  of  the 
ostentatious  Pharisee,  who,  in  the  temple  and  before 
God's  throne,  boasted  of  his  fast-days  and  the  regular 
payment  of  his  tithes.  It  matters  not  whether  the 
forms  be  few  or  many,  bald  or  costly-decked, — if  they 
are  unduly  confided  in,  shifted  from  the  position  which 
they  may  lawfully  occupy  as  means,  to  that  which  in 
God's  sight  they  never  can  occupy  as  a  ground,  and  if 
the  observance  of  them  is  made  a  substitute  for  piety 
and  holy  obedience, — the  system  must  be  branded  as 
mere  formalism. 

1.  Our  first  remark  on  such  a  system,  is,  its  utter 
wortJilessness  to  satisfy  the  great  tuants  of  human  nature. 
The  wants  of  man,  in  a  religious  point  of  view,  are 
obvious.  He  is  guilty  before  God,  and  needs  expia- 
tion. He  is  the  subject  of  depraved  principles,  and 
needs  to  be  regenerated.  Formalism,  whether  gor- 
geous or  naked,  can  no  more  remove  the  condemning 
sentence  from  the  head,  and  root  out  depraved  prin- 
ciples from  the  heart,  than  saying  to  a  destitute 
brother  or  sister,  be  ye  warmed  and  filled,  can  profit, 
if  we  give  them  not  those  things  that  are  needful  to 
the  body.     To  look  amid  a  mere  ceremonial  for  some 


318  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

power  to  atone  and  purify,  were  as  foolish  and  vain  as 
to  seek  the  living  among  the  dead.  And  yet  this  is 
a  folly  which  multitudes  of  cultivated,  and  unculti- 
vated minds  are  repeating  every  day.  Forms  are  neces- 
sary, in  this  world  at  least,  to  display  and  maintain 
the  power  of  godliness.  But  it  should  never  be  for- 
gotten that  in  the  forms  the  Divine  ef&cacy  is  not 
inherent.  The  internal  religious  sentiments  and 
emotions  must  express  themselves  in  some  outward 
shape,  and  neither  reason  nor  revelation  forbids  that 
the  external  institutions  of  piety  should  be  imposing 
and  graceful.  But  as  man  cannot  feed  upon  flowers, 
nor  his  natural  life  be  sustained  by  the  most  enrap- 
turing music,  so,  amid  the  most  strict  observance  of 
even  divinely-appointed  rites,  he  will,  if  halting  in 
them,  remain,  in  the  scriptural  sense  of  the  express- 
ion, dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  The  use  of  a  lad- 
der is  to  ascend  by  it  to  some  lofty  eminence,  but  if 
men  were  merely  to  run  up  and  doAvn  the  steps,  and 
imagine  that  they  had  reached  the  height  to  which  it 
pointed,  and  that  they  had  beheld  the  view  which  the 
summit  commanded,  they  would  be  regarded  as  under 
a  strange  hallucination.  The  hallucination  is  not 
less  real,  and  infinitely  more  dangerous,  in  the  man 
who  goes  the  round  of  religious  observances,  stops 
short  at  them,  builds  upon  them,  and  deems  himself 
all  the  while  to  have  attained  to  the  position  and  char- 
acter of  a  child  of  God,  and  an  heir  of  heaven.  It 
betrays  a  littleness  of  conception  in  reference  to  the 
character  and  law  of  the  great  I  Am,  to  suppose  that, 
by  mere  outward  rites  and  ceremonies,  men  are  to  be 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  319 

pardoned,  sanctified,  and  saved.  It  manifests  a  great 
lack  of  spiritual  discernment,  to  regard  a  punctilious 
attention  to  a  ritual,  and  a  reliance  on  forms,  as  occupy- 
ing the  place,  and  answering  the  ends,  of  faith  and 
repentance,  holy  love  and  spiritual  obedience.  It  is 
acting  as  if  the  reverse  of  the  proposition — and 
not  the  proposition  itself — were  true:  man  looks 
upon  the  outward  appearance,  but  God  looks  upon 
the  heart. 

The  worthlessness  of  such  a  reliance,  in  reference 
to  the  two  great  wants  of  human  nature, — deliverance 
from  guilt  and  from  the  dominion  of  evil,  is  attested 
by  observation  and  experience.  Men  have  run,  count- 
less times,  round  the  circle  of  prescribed  observances, 
leaning  on  the  symbol  without  rising  up  to  the  thing- 
signified  ;  and  it  has  either  been,  in  their  experience, 
a  round  of  anguish,  or  a  dead  tread,  in  which  they 
were  destitute  of  a  sense  of  reconciliation  and  peace 
with  God.  Sacrifice  after  sacrifice  has  been  offered, 
the  yoke  in  a  thousand  forms  has  been  borne,  words 
of  what  seemed  holiest  prayer  have  been  daily  uttered, 
hymns  of  sweetest  harmony  and  devout  fervor  have 
been  chanted ;  and,  after  the  excitement,  produced  by 
the  pomp  of  ceremony,  by  a  religion  of  refined  cere- 
monial, or  a  religion  of  primitive  simplicity,  has  sub- 
sided, the  soul  has  been,  like  a  stricken  deer,  ill  at 
ease,  and  panting  again  for  the  excitement  of  the 
chase.  The  splendid  ritual,  and  the  plain,  the  divinely- 
appointed  institute  and  the  human,  the  sacrament 
stamped  with  Heaven's  authority  and  that  bearing 
only   man's,    have,    each   and   all   of  them,   declared, 


320  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

the  merit  that  atones  and  the  grace  that  pardons  va  e 
not  to  be  found  in  them. 

The  inefficacy  of  the  system  to  regenerate,  and 
assimilate  men  to  the  likeness  of  God,  is  as  manifest 
as  its  powerlessness  to  remove  the  burden  of  guilt. 
Be  it  in  the  shape  of  a  court  ceremonial,  of  things 
appealing  to  refined  taste  and  sentiment,  or  of  the 
common  sacred  decencies  of  the  sabbath  day,  if  it  be 
a  religion  merely  formal,  men  will  observe  its  rites, 
and  pass  through  its  forms,  without  throwing  off  any 
more  of  their  impurity  and  receiving  any  more  of  the 
beauties  of  holiness,  than  if  they  paced  to  and  fro 
the  floor  of  a  gallery  amid  cold  marble  statues.  The 
man  of  taste  has  stood  amid  some  glorious  amphi- 
theatre of  nature,  and  felt  his  soul  elated  by  the 
majesty  of  the  hills,  the  green  loveliness  of  the  val- 
leys, the  splendor  of  the  setting  sun,  and  the  con- 
cert of  the  rejoicing  creation.  He  has  witnessed  the 
same  magnificence  and  felt  its  power  over  and  over 
again.  But  when  the  excitement  of  the  imagination 
has  been  subdued,  and  the  charm  has  passed  away  like 
a  dream,  and  the  man  has  fallen  back  upon  himself, 
or  mingled  with  the  world,  his  heart  has  been  found 
without  God,  and  his  life  reflecting  not  a  ray  of  the 
Divine  image.  Thus  making  it  manifest  that  the 
formalism  of  taste,  gratified  though  it  be  by  the  grand 
and  graceful  in  scenery,  has,  in  itself  and  independent 
of  influences  from  above,  no  efiicacy  whatever  to 
purify  the  heart  and  clothe  men  in  moral  beauty. 
The  formalist  has  gone  up,  demurely  and  punctually, 
to  the  temple  at  the  hour  of  prayer,  and,  whether  it 


OF    THE    POWER    OF    GODLINESS,  321 

has  been  amid  the  architectural  splendor  of  the 
cathedral  where  the  pealing  organ  carries  the  soul 
aloft,  and  gorgeous  ceremonies  are  observed ;  or 
whether  it  be  in  the  humble  meeting-house  where 
psalms  are  plainly  sung,  and  the  Gospel  is  plainly 
preached,  he  has  felt  himself  attracted  and  regaled  as 
with  a  lovely  song.  But  it  has  been  a  mere  round  of 
formal  excitement,  which  has  never  moved  the  depths 
of  the  heart  to  harmony  with  the  will  of  God,  and 
thrown  no  hallowed  comeliness  over  the  life.  Thus 
showing  that  the  ritual  of  a  sanctuary,  be  it  splendid 
or  simple,  can  of  itself  no  more  regenerate  the  soul  of 
man,  than  the  ritual  of  material  nature.  Men  may 
speak  of  the  efl&cacy  of  the  sacraments,  but  daily  ob- 
servation makes  it  too  palpable,  that  multitudes  who 
are  baptized  and  received  to  the  Lord's  supper,  even 
by  those  claiming  to  be  the  successors  of  the  apostles, 
differ  little  or  nothing  in  their  temper  and  conduct 
from  the  ungodly  world  around  them.  And  the  same 
thing  is  evinced  in  the  observance  of  other  forms, 
when  these  are  made  halting-places  on  which  the 
mind  unduly  leans.  Whatever  observances  men  may 
substitute  for  the  finished  work  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  the  regenerating  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
be  they  costly  or  mean,  imposing  or  simple,  appoint- 
ments of  Heaven  or  appointments  of  earth,  their 
worthlessness  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  man's  moral 
nature  will  be  made  evident. 

2.  Our  second  remark  is,  that,  in  mere  formalism^  the 
pleasure  found  in  spiritual  religion  is  not  experienced. 
It  is  impossible  that  it  should.     The  creation  is  not 

21 


322  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

so  joyous  and  full  of  life  wlien  a  mass  of  dark  clouds 
intercepts  the  rays  of  the  sun,  as  when  that  sun 
beams  brightly  forth  on  hill  and  valley,  and  covers 
heaven  and  earth  with  light  as  with  a  garment.  God 
is  a  sun.  He  is  the  infinite  good.  Nothing  but  a 
living  sensible  communion  with  him,  can  displace 
heaviness  from  the  heart,  and  shed  a  holy  happiness 
over  the  life.  Formalism  interposes  thick  shadows 
between  the  fountain  of  light  and  the  human  soul. 
It  is  as  when  a  man  halts  on  the  somewhat  bleak 
and  rugged  borders  of  a  lovely  region,  without  ever 
entering  into  the  beautiful  territory  itself.  Forms 
were  designed,  by  Him  who  knoweth  our  frame,  to  be 
the  means  by  which  we  might  ascend  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  himself  But  Avhen  the  mind  halts  in  the 
symbol,  instead  of  rising  from  it  to  the  thing  signified  ; 
when  the  man  runs  up  and  down  the  ladder,  instead  of 
reaching  the  eminence  which  commands  the  glorious 
prospect,  he  loses  the  enjoyment  inseparable  from  in- 
tercourse with  the  blissful  reality.  It  has  often  been 
remarked,  that,  in  those  countries  and  ages  where 
religion  has  appeared  in  her  most  gaudy  trim, — 
ages  characterized  by  the  architectural  splendor  of 
churches,  and  by  the  observance  of  a  gorgeous  round 
of  rites  and  ceremonies, — the  spiritual  element  in 
worship  has  been  feeble  and  scarcely  perceptible. 
And  there,  too,  the  light,  loveliness,  and  joy,  insepar- 
able from  the  Gospel  truth,  have  been  wanting ;  and 
gloom  and  slavish  fear  have  prevailed  in  their  room. 
When  one  passes  from  a  country  that  lies  under  the 
deadly  grasp  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  despotism,  to 


OF    THE    POWER   OF    GODLINESS.  323 

another  where  political  and  religious  liberty  is  richly 
enjoyed,  it  is  like  making  a  transit  from  a  region  of 
thick  gloom  to  one  of  joyous  sunshine.  And  the 
difference  is  not  less  discernible  between  a  religious 
community  where  the  spiritual  element  is  buried  in 
the  formal,  and  one  in  which  the  former  pervades 
and  gives  life  to  the  latter ;  or  between  an  individual 
who  has  a  feeling  of  the  Divine  presence  and  a  relish 
of  the  Divine  excellence,  and  one  whose  idol  is  the 
church  he  attends  and  the  rites  in  which  he  engages. 
It  is  not  the  ritual  in  itself,  at  least  it  is  not  the 
divinely-appointed  ritual,  that  is  incompatible  with 
or  obstructive  of  spiritual  life  and  joy,  but  the  substi- 
tution of  it  as  means  in  the  place  of  ends.  David 
and  Asaph,  who  lived  under  the  Levitical  economy, 
so  full  and  minute  in  its  provisions  regarding  forms, 
lost  not  sight  of  the  spiritual  element,  and  had  a  vivid 
experience  of  the  joy  inseparably  connected  with  it. 
The  mere  formalist  is  a  stranger  to  that  life  of  god- 
liness which  enables  a  man  to  say, — when  he  looks 
abroad  upon  the  fields  of  creation,  or  when  he 
has  entered  into'  his  closet,  shut  his  door,  and  is 
conscious  that  no  eye  sees  him  and  no  ear  hears 
him  but  the  eye  and  ear  of  God, — "  whom  have  I  in 
heaven  but  thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that 
I  desire  beside  thee."  "There  be  many  that  say, 
Who  will  show  us  any  good  ?  Lord,  lift  thou  up  the 
light  of  thy  countenance  upon  us." 

Formalism  may  be  found  in  all  religious  communi- 
ties, for  it  is  the  besetting  sin  of  huma?i  nature;  but 
we  look  in  vain,  in  the  religion  of  the  formalist,  for 


324  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

those  robes  of  fine  linen,  as  joyous  as  pure,  which 
clothed  such  men  as  Leighton  and  Doddridge,  Baxter 
and  Edwards,  and  thousands  of  others  whom  the 
world  never  heard  of,  and  of  whom  the  world  was  not 
worthy.  There  is  a  pleasure  which  a  man  of  taste 
and  sensibility  enjoys  in  contemplating  the  grand  and 
beautiful  objects  of  nature,  but  the  pleasure  is  poor 
and  transient  compared  with  what  the  same  man 
experiences  when  in  filial  confidence,  he  views  them 
as  the  creations  of  his  Father.  Byron,  amid  the 
lovely  scenery  of  the  isles  of  Greece,  never  felt  what 
the  great  metaphysician  of  New  England  felt,  when, 
as  he  tells  us,  he  "  spent  much  of  his  time  in  viewing 
the  clouds  and  sky,  to  behold  the  sweet  glory  of  God 
in  these  things ;  in  the  mean  time  singing  forth,  with 
a  low  voice,  his  contemplations  of  the  Creator  and 
Redeemer."  There  is  a  pleasure,  too,  felt  under  the 
shadow  of  the  cathedral  pile,  derived  from  the  im- 
posing splendor  of  the  place,  the  enrapturing  music, 
and  the  rich  ceremonial ;  but  it  is  a  pleasure  difi'erent 
in  kind,  and  vastly  inferior  in  degree  to  what  is  ex- 
perienced by  the  man,  observant  it  may  be  of  the 
same  forms,  who  rises  through  them  to  divine  fellow- 
ship with  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  the  God  of  his 
salvation.  And  there  is  a  pleasure  also,  in  going  up 
to  the  humble  chapel,  amid  the  hallowed  calm  of  the 
sabbath  morning,  and  bearing  a  part  in  the  routine 
of  its  simple  services  ;  but  that  pleasure,  likewise, 
may  have  little  or  none  of  the  life  and  joy  of  god- 
liness, and  be  as  unlike  the  holy  inward  happiness 
of    the   man   who   worships    God    in    spirit    and    in 


OF   THE   POWER   OF    GODLINESS.  325 

truth,  as  earth  is  unlike  heaven.  Men  do  not 
gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor  figs  of  thistles,  neither 
do  they  experience  that  joy  which  is  a  fruit  of  the 
Spirit,  in  a  religion  whichi  is  merely  formal  and  not 
spiritual. 

3.  Our  third  remark  is,  that  formalism  ever  lias  a 
tendency  to  intolerance.  Men,  in  proportion  as  they 
are  imbued  witli  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  have  en- 
larged hearts.  Love  is  represented,  in  almost  every 
page  of  the  New  Testament,  as  the  cliaracteristic  of 
the  Christian.  It  is  not  an  attachment  to  men  merely 
because  they  are  members  of  this  or  that  particular 
society,  but  because  they  belong  to  the  church  of  the 
li\dng  God.  It  is  not  entwined  around  a  man  because 
he  bears  a  humanly-devised  name,  but  because  he 
wears  in  his  bosom,  and  shows  in  his  life,  the 
Saviour's  image.  This  holy  principle  looks  beyond 
the  outward  appearance,  and  fastens  its  regard  on  that 
image,  though  it  be  found  in  a  Lazarus  sitting  in  rags 
and  seeking  to  be  fed  with  the  crumbs  of  the  rich 
man's  table.  Nor  does  it  confine  its  regards  to  those 
who  are  united  to  the  common  Saviour,  and  are  made 
partakers  of  the  common  salvation.  It  looks  on  the 
wide  world  with  an  eye  of  compassion,  and  feels 
towards  it  those  stirrings  of  benevolence  which  seek 
to  save  that  which  is  lost.  It  is  like  the  sun  in  the 
firmament  which  confines  not  his  radiance  to  any 
little  spot  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  but  spreads  it 
over  the  wide  fields  of  creation.  "  Its  going  forth  is 
from  the  end  of  the  heaven,  and  its  circuit  unto  the  ends 
of  it :  and  there  is  nothing  hid  from  the  heat  thereof" 


326  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

Formalism  engenders  a  spirit  the  reverse  of  all  this. 
It  is  sectarian.  It  is  pent  up  within  the  pale  of  its 
own  community ;  and  whatever  religious  zeal  it  pos- 
sesses, is  spent  on  its  own  creed  and  ceremonies. 
We  see  this  in  the  Pharisees  of  the  Gospels.  They 
were  proud,  haughty  separatists.  Men  who  stood 
aloof  from  others  on  the  ground  of  mere  outward 
observances.  They  erected  the  banner  of  party  dis- 
tinction in  the  temple  where  all  meet  on  a  common 
level.  They  said  to  others,  by  their  looks  and  actions, 
"  Stand  by  yourself,  come  not  near  me,  for  I  am 
holier  than  you."  We  see  this  in  that  church  which 
arrogates  to  itself  the  exclusive  claim  of  being  "  Holy 
Catholic."  The  most  massive  system  of  religious 
formalism,  it  has  ever  been  the  most  intolerant  in 
theory  and  practice.  Out  of  the  Romish  pale  there 
is  no  salvation, — is  an  infallible  dogma  which  every 
good  catholic  is  bound  to  believe.  It  is  instilled  into 
the  minds  of  youth,  by  the  catholic  school  book.  It 
is  the  vital  element  that  pervades  Papal  decrees. 
It  ever  and  anon  drops  from  the  priest's  lips,  in  the 
hearing  of  young  and  old,  of  peasant  and  noble. 
And,  in  accordance  with  this  monstrous  dogma,  mem- 
bers of  other  communions  are  consigned  over  to 
eternal  perdition,  though  they  may  have  been  the 
most  excellent  ones  of  the  earth,  men  of  seraphic 
piety,  the  very  salt  of  the  earth,  and  the  lights  of  the 
world.  Sectarian  exclusiveness  is  strikingly  character- 
istic of  Oxford  tractarianism.  It  refuses  even  the  name 
of  church  to  whatever  Protestant  body  lies  without  the 
pale  of  its  own  communion,  arrogates  the  commission 


OF  THE  POWER  OF  GODLINESS.  327 

to  administer  Christian  ordinances  to  episcopally-or- 
dained  ministers  only,  denounces  dissent  as  apostasy 
from  the  true  church,  and  considers  it  sinful  to  have 
fellowship  with  any  beyond  the  episcopal  border. 
Hence  the  intolerance,  which  has  sometimes  been 
manifested  in  high  places,  in  prohibiting  the  catholic- 
spirited  men  in  that  portion  of  the  church  from 
co-operating  in  good  works  with  Christian  men  in 
other  denominations.  But  it  behoves  us  not  to  be 
unmindful  that  the  same  exclusively  sectarian  feeling 
may  exist  in  persons,  mere  formalists,  sitting  side  by 
side  with  each  other  in  the  same  church  pew.  Who- 
ever,— instead  of  humbling  his  heart  before  God,  and 
recognizing  in  the  meanest  worshipper  a  child  of  the 
same  bountiful  Father,  and  alike  welcome  with  him- 
self to  a  participation  in  the  fulness  of  his  house, — 
assumes  a  conceited  sentiment  of  his  own  superior 
sanctity,  such  as  removes  him  in  fancy  to  an  elevation 
apart  from  other  men,  is  filled  with  the  same  self-right- 
eous and  intolerant  spirit  which  actuated  the  Pharisees, 
and  which  Jehovah,  by  the  prophet,  so  strongly  repro- 
bates :  "  These  are  a  smoke  in  my  nose,  a  fire  that 
burneth  all  the  day  1" 

The  transition  from  such  separatism  to  a  rancorous 
fanaticism,  is  easy  and  natural.  The  full-blown  sepa- 
ratist not  only  stands  aloof  from  other  men  and  disre- 
gards their  claims,  but  he  assumes  towards  them  an 
attitude  of  scowling  defiance.  He  carries  his  hateful 
spirit  into  the  very  exercises  of  the  sanctuary,  and  utters 
bis  denunciations  at  the  altar.  The  formalist,  wrapped 
up   in   the   robe   of  his   own  righteousness,  feigns   a 


328  formalism;  ou,  the  denial 

''  God  I  thank  thee,"  that  he  is  not  as  other  men  are, 
extortioners,  unjust,  but   that   he   fasts  twice   in   the 
week  and  gives  tithes  of  all  that  he  has.     With  his 
tongue  blesses  he  God,  even  the  Father;    and  there- 
with curses  he  men,  which  are  made  after  the  simili- 
tude of  God ;  out  of  the  same  mouth  proceed  blessing 
and  cursing,  and  we  behold  in  him  a  fountain  sending 
forth  at  the  same  place  sweet  water  and  bitter.     This 
odious  system  stings  like  a  serpent,  and  bites  like  an 
adder,  at  every  species  of  spiritual  piety  that  crosses 
its   path.      It   varies   in   the   manifestation   of  its   in- 
tolerance, from   the   man  who,  like   a   sentinel,   goes 
the   round   of  his   own   church  observances,  and   in- 
wardly says,  "  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  are  we,"  to  the  man  who  would  erect  the  gibbet 
and  kindle  the  faggot  for  schismatics  and  heretics,  and 
persuade  himself  that  in  thus  acting  he  was  doing  God 
service. 

4.  Our  fourth  remark  is,  that  such  a  system  is  dia 
metrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  precepts  of  the  Gos 
pel.  It  says,  "our  fathers  worshipped  in  this  moun- 
tain." This  is  the  church  in  which  alone  is  given  under 
heaven  that  name  whereby  we  can  be  saved.  The 
Lord  and  Master  says,  the  exclusive  system  has  ceased. 
"The  hour  is  come  when  ye  shall  neither  in  this 
mountain,  nor  yet  at  Jerusalem,  worship  the  Father. 
God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must 
worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  Formalism 
says,  we  who  fast  so  often,  pray  so  fervently,  and 
attend  on  the  sacraments  so  punctually,  are  Gods 
people.     Evangelism  replies,  "he  is  not  a  Jew,  which 


OF    THE    POWER    OF    GODLINESS.  329 

is  one  outwardly ; .  neither  is  that  circumcision  which 
is  outward  in  the  flesh :  but  he  is  a  Jew,  w^hich  is 
one  inwardly ;  and  circumcision  is  that  of  the  heart, 
in  the  spirit,  and  not  in  the  letter ;  whose  praise  is  not 
of  men,  but  of  God."  The  one  says,  "we  have  Abra- 
ham to  our  father,"  and  are  in  the  line  of  the  true 
Apostolical  succession.  The  other  says,  "we  are  the 
circumcision,"  the  true  seed  of  Abraham,  "which 
worship  God  in  the  spirit,  and  rejoice  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh."  The  one  says, 
perform  this  ceremony  and  that,  go  this  round  of 
observances  and  that,  and  ye  shall  be  justified.  The 
other,  in  holy  indignation,  exclaims,  "  if  righteous- 
ness come  by  the  law,  then  Christ  is  dead  in  vain ; 
therefore  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall  no  flesh 
be  justified."  The  one  says,  baptism  is  regeneration, 
only  be  baptized,  come  to  the  sacramental  table,  and 
ye  shall  be  saved.  The  other  says,  "  neither  circum- 
cision availeth  anything  nor  uncircumcision,  but  a 
new  creature."  Formalism  looks  chiefly  at  w^hat  a  man 
does,  irrespective  of  his  character  and  motives.  It 
takes  notice  of  his  long  and  numerous  prayers,  while 
it  winks  at  him  oppressing  the  poor,  and  devouring 
widows'  houses.  It  approves  of  his  strict  observance 
of  the  decencies  and  rites  of  the  sabbath  day,  while 
it  frowns  upon  him  healing  the  diseased,  raising  an 
ox  out  of  the  pit,  or  performing  any  other  works  of 
mercy  in  the  same  sacred  period.  It  is  heedless  of 
the  state  of  the  heart  in  which  a  man  approaches  God's 
altar,  while  it  is  careful  to  see  that  his  hands  are 
washed,  and  that  his  raiment  is  tidy.     It  will  furnish 


330  formalism;  or,  the  denial 

him  with  a  reason  for  neglecting  ^  moral  duty,  and 
throw  an  air  of  sanctimonious  pretence  over  the 
violence  done  to  natural  affection,  provided  he  is 
mindful  of  the  claims  of  the  temple  treasury.  It 
teaches  him  to  say  "  Corban,"  it  is  a  gift;  and  thus 
frees  him  from  the  obligation  of  relieving  his  father 
and  mother.  There  is  not  less  communion  between 
light  and  darkness,  than  there  is  between  such  a 
system,  and  the  spiritual  Christianity  taught  by  Jesus 
and  his  apostles.  "  This  people,"  said  the  Great 
Teacher,  "  draweth  nigh  unto^  me  with  their  mouth, 
and  honoreth  me  with  their  lips,  but  their  heart  is 
far  from  me.  But  in  vain  do  they  worship  me,  teach- 
ing for  doctrines  the  commandments  of  men."  Chris- 
tianity does  not  overlook  what  a  man  may  have  done, 
but  it  looks  more  to  what  a  man  is.  It  gives  no  coun- 
tenance whatever  to  despise  sacred  rites  and  seasons, 
but  it  says  to  the  man  who  attaches  an  undue  import- 
ance to  them  while  neglecting  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law,  "  These  things  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not 
to  leave  the  others  undone." 

"  There  are  two  ways  of  destroying  Christianity," 
remarks  D'Aubigne,  "one  is  to  deny,  the  other  to 
displace  it.  To  put  the  church  above  Christianity, 
the  hierarchy  above  the  word  of  God ;  to  ask  a  man, 
not  whether  he  has  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  but 
whether  he  has  received  baptism  from  the  hands  of 
those  who  are  termed  successors  of  the  apostles  and 
their  delegates :  all  this  may  doubtless  flatter  the  pride 
of  the  natural  man,  but  is  fundamentally  opposed  to  the 
Bible,  and  aims  a  fatal  blow  at  the  religion  of  Jesus 


OF   THE   POWER   OF    GODLINESS.  331 

Christ.  If  God  had  intended  that  Christianity  should, 
like  the  Mosaic  system,  be  chiefly  an  ecclesiastical, 
sacerdotal,  and  hierarchical  system,  he  would  have 
ordered  and  established  it  in  the  New  Testament,  as 
he  did  in  the  Old.  But  there  is  nothing  like  this  in 
the  New  Testament.  All  the  declarations  of  our 
Lord  and  of  his  apostles  tend  to  prove  that  the  new 
religion  given  to  the  world,  is  '  life  and  spirit,'  and  not 
a  new  system  of  priesthood  and  ordinances.  'The 
kingdom  of  God,'  saith  Jesus,  '  cometh  not  with  ob- 
servation: neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here!  or  lo 
there  !  for  behold  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you.' 
'  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink ;  but 
righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
.  .  .  Let  us  not,  then,  esteem  the  bark  above  the  sap, 
the  body  above  the  soul,  the  form  above  the  life,  the 
visible  church  above  the  invisible,  the  priest  above  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Let  us  all  hate  sectarian,  ecclesiastical, 
national,  or  dissenting  spirit;  but  let  us  love  Jesus 
Christ  in  all  sects,  whether  ecclesiastical,  national,  or 
dissenting."^  "  And  as  many  as  walk  according  to  this 
rule,  peace  be  on  them,  and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel 
of  God." 

'  Geneva  and  Oxford,  by  D'Aubigne. 


fart  t\}t  ^trnit 

INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VARIOUS  CAUSES 

GENERAL   CAUSE. 

SPECIFIC  CAUSES:— 
SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY. 
SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION. 
THE   CORRUPTIONS   OF   CHRISTIANITY. 
RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 
DISUNION  OF  THE  CHURCH 


fiifiWitu  ill  ite  tariaus  €^mth 


CHAPTEE  I 


GENERAL    CAUSE. 


Causes  of  Infidelity  ethical  rather  than  intellectual— The  Will  hai 
much  to  do  with  it — Moral  evidence  not  irresistible — Existence  of 
God  does  not  admit  of  demonstration — Remark  of  Dr.  Arnold — 
Pantheism  and  naturalism  traced  to  aversion  of  heart — Sufficienc}' 
of  Christian  evidences — Jewish  unbelief  originated  in  a  moral 
cause — Speculative  and  practical  Infidelity  have  same  origin- 
Bible  account  of  the  matter. 

It  is  evident  that  unbelief,  generally  speaking,  can 
originate  in  only  one  of  two  sources ;  either  in  a  de- 
ficiency of  evidence,  o!*,  in  a  state  of  mind  and  heart 
on  which  the  clearest  and  strongest  evidence  has  no 
power.  The  causes  of  infidelity,  we  are  persuaded, 
are  more  ethical  than  intellectual.  And  this  persua- 
sion is  greatly  strengthened  by  the  perusal  of  some 
of  the  productions  of  our  modern  infidel  writers. 
"  Nothing  can  be  more  contemptible,"  says  Professor 
Garbett,^  "than  the  argumentative  resources  of  modern 

^  Modern  Philosophical  Infidelity,  p.  5. 


336  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

infidelity.  It  does  not  reason^  it  only  ]postulates  j  it 
dreams  and  it  dogmatizes.  Nor  can  it  claim  inven- 
tion.'''' This  witness  is  true.  Indeed,  we  venture  to 
assert,  that  the  general  strain  of  argument  brought 
to  bear  against  Christianity  by  its  modern  assailants, 
would  not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment  within  the  prov- 
ince of  purely  literary  criticism.  The  strong  deter- 
mination to  withstand  everything  in  the  shape  of  rea- 
sonable evidence,  contrast  very  much  with  the  feeble 
argumentation  by  which  many  of  the  truths  of  religion 
are  set  aside.  Be  it  atheism  or  pantheism,  natural- 
ism or  spiritualism,  indifferentism  or  formalism,  the 
will  has  much  to  do  with  it.  Moral  evidence  is  the 
appropriate  proof  of  moral  truth.  All  moral  evidence 
is  cumulative;  but,  however  strong  it  may  be,  it  is 
never  irresistible.  An  indocile  reason  can  ward  it  off. 
The  existence  of  God,  for  example,  does  not  admit 
of  demonstrative,  but  of  moral  certainty.  And,  though 
supported  by  a  vastly  preponderating  amount  of  proof, 
room  is  left  for  the  cavils  of  a  strongly-prejudiced  un- 
belief The  argument  from  design  is  one  of  great 
power,  and  though  it  does  not  of  itself  lead  us  to  the 
High  and  Holy  One,  it  points  us  very  clearly  thither. 
But  the  ground  is  by  no  means  free  from  difficulties. 
Faith,  supported  by  the  immensely  overbalancing 
amount  of  clear  evidence,  triumphs  over  these,  whereas 
the  unbelieving  heart  yields  to  them.  Still  stronger 
is  the  testimony  to  this  primal  truth  given  by  our  own 
inward  consciousness — a  testimony  that  outweighs  all 
atheistical  assumptions  and  arguments ;  but,  in  spite 
of  it,   man  can  befool  himself,  and  say  in  his  heart, 


GENERAL   CAUSE.         •  337 

there  is  no  God.  The  disrelish  of  the  truth  that  God 
is,  strengthens  itself  in  the  comparatively  small  resi- 
due of  phenomena  that  seems  to  conflict  with  it,  and 
there  repels  the  conviction  arising  from  the  irrefrag- 
able proof  on  the  other  side.  Dr.  Arnold,  reasoning 
on  the  supposition  that  the  intellectual  difficulties  are 
balanced,  remarks:  "here  is  the  moral  fault  of  unbe- 
lief,— that  a  man  can  bear  to  make  so  great  a  moral 
sacrifice,  as  is  implied  in  renouncing  God.  He  makes 
the  greatest  moral  sacrifice  to  obtain  partial  satisfac- 
tion to  his  intellect:  a  believer  ensures  the  greatest 
moral  pefection,  with  partial  satisfaction  to  his  intel- 
lect also;  entire  satisfaction  to  the  intellect  is,  and 
can  be,  obtained  by  neither."^  The  choice  in  such  a 
case,  must  be  resolved  into  the  inclination,  or  the  wish 
to  have  it  that  there  is  no  God.  But  matters  are  not 
really  so  balanced.  The  difficulties  greatly  prepon- 
derate on  the  side  of  unbelief  And  for  a  man  to 
accept  of  the  proposition  that  God  is  not,  with  the 
mass  of  monstrosities  and  difiiculties  that  attend  it, 
and  thereby  renounce  the  affirmative  proposition  that 
God  is, — a  proposition  so  well  substantiated,  and  for 
which  there  is  an  intellectual  necessity, — indicates 
very  plainly  the  leanings  of  the  heart.  Lord  Bacon 
says:  "none  deny  there  is  a  God,  but  those  for  whom 
it  maketh  that  the-re  was  no  God. 

The  personality  of  the  Divine  Being  irrespective  of 
its  being  interwoven  with  the  language  of  the  Bible, 
and  imparting  to  it  a  burning  energy,  is  much  more 
rational   than   the   pantheistic  doctrine.     It  does  not 

'  Dr  Arnold  s  Life  and  Correspondence. 
22 


338  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

admit,  however,  of  strict  demonstration.  We  may  argue 
very  conclusively  in  favor  of  it,  from  our  own  per- 
sonality, and  maintain  that,  since  personality  is  a 
perfection,  God  must  possess  it  in  the  highest  degree, 
otherwise  he  would  be  inferior  to  ourselves ;  and  not 
only  so,  but  we  could  conceive  of  God  as  a  more 
glorious  being  than  he  really  is,  which  is  an  absurdity. 
We  may  strengthen  our  proof  by  the  consideration 
that  men  in  general  feel,  in  the  most  solemn  and 
affecting  moments  of  their  lives,  that  God  is  a  real 
person.  And  to  this  we  may  add,  that,  without  the 
idea  of  a  personal  God,  "we  cannot  really  explain  the 
origin  or  the  order  of  the  universe ;  and  tliat  it  is  a 
mere  assumption  to  assert,  that  personality  is  in  its 
very  nature  finite — since  it  is  the  finiteness  of  man's 
attributes,  and  that  alone,  which  gives  the  finiteness 
to  his  personality."^  But  the  heart  can  repel  all  this 
proof;  and  bring  to  its  aid,  if  not  the  force  of  argu- 
ment, the  language  of  the  mystic  and  the  principles 
of  a  dreaming  philosophy.  The  reluctance  to  think 
of  God  as  a  living  Person,  holy,  just,  and  good,  and 
with  whom  we  have  to  do,  is  greater  than  the  inca- 
pacity. It  is  in  the  delirium  of  self-adoration,  in  the 
swellings  of  a  pride-intoxicated  heart,  that  men  break 
loose  from  a  sense  of  responsibility,  ignore  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Personal  Creator  and  Judge,  and  yield  to 
the  temptation — je  shall  be  as  gods.  No  one  can 
read  the  rhapsodies  of  such  a  man  as  Emerson,  with- 
out perceiving  that  the  state  of  the  heart, — a  heart 
puffed  up  with  the  delusive  notion  of  its  own  divinity, 
'  Smith's  Relations  of  Faith  and  Philosophy,  p.  13. 


GENERAL   CAUSE.  339 

— ^lies  at  the  bottom  of  liis  unbelief.  And  the  appeal 
is  made  not  to  men's  sober  judgment,  but  to  their 
rebellious  propensities,  when  they  are  told  that  they 
have  the  resources  of  the  world  in  their  own  souls, 
and  that  all  their  actions  are  forms  of  piety. 

Naturalism  has  its  roots  in  the  same  soil.  In  so  far 
as  argument  is  concerned,  it  has  scarcely  a  leg  to 
stand  upon.  The  evidences  of  a  Supreme  Presiding 
Intelligence  are  as  manifest  as  those  of  a  Supreme 
Creative  Power.  The  development  hypothesis  is  no- 
thing better  than  a  wild  dream,  which  is  fast  disap- 
pearing before  the  light  of  advancing  science.  Astro- 
nomical and  geological  researches  are  rapidly  cutting 
away  the  ground  on  which  any  such  theory  is  sup- 
posed to  rest,  whether  as  applied  to  the  heavens  above 
or  to  the  earth  beneath.  The  nebular  hypothesis, 
which  would  remove  God  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
visible  universe,  and  account  for  the  changes,  as  well 
as  for  the  orderly  movements  in  the  heavens,  without 
his  presiding  agency,  was  merely  thrown  out  as  a  con- 
jecture at  first,  and  is  now  being  falsified  by  the  discov- 
eries of  the  telescope.  And,  as  Professor  Whewell 
remarks,  "  Science  negatives  the  doctrine  that  men 
grew  out  of  apes,  that  language  is  the  necessary 
development  of  the  jabbering  of  such  creatures,  and 
reason  the  product  of  their  conflicting  appetites."^ 
Besides,  it  is  doubtless  more  rational  to  suppose  that 
God  continues  to  govern  the  world  which  he  has  made 
than  that  he  has  abandoned  it.  "  When  a  man,"  says 
Bacon,    "seeth    the   dependence   of  causes    and   the 

'  Indications  of  the  Creator,  p.  8. 


340  •  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

works  of  Providence,  then,  according  to  the  allegory 
of  the  poets,  he  will  easily  believe  that  the  highest 
link  of  nature's  chain  must  needs  be  tied  to  the  foot 
of  Jupiter's  chair."  Having  interposed  in  a  miraculous 
manner  at  the  creation  of  the  world,  it  is  reasonable 
to  believe  that  God  would  interpose  again,  for  an  end 
worthy  of  his  character,  and  bearing  on  the  highest 
interest  of  the  human  race.  The  position  taken  up 
by  Strauss, — that  miracles  are  impossible,  is  utterly 
indefensible.  It  may  consist  with  his  philosophy,  but 
not  with  the  common-sense  truth  that  God  is  in  the 
heavens,  and  that  he  doeth  whatsoever  he  pleaseth. 
But  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Providential  Govern- 
ment does  not  admit  of  demonstrative  certainty.  The 
facts  lying  without,  and  the  voice  of  conscience 
within,  speak  loudly  in  proof  of  it.  The  evidence  is 
suf&cient  to  justify  bur  faith,  but  it  is  not  irresistible. 
There  are  other  facts  which  seem  to  conflict  with  the 
doctrine.  Darkness  and  difficulties,  which  have  been 
felt  by  the  best  men  in  every  age,  beset  us  in  this 
field  of  inquiry.  But  what  is  the  darkness  to  the 
light?  The  difficulties  arise  from  our  limited  capaci- 
ty and  knowing  but  in  part.  Our  vision  is  restricted 
to  a  point  of  a  universal  system ;  and  analogy  war- 
rants the  conclusion,  that,  were  our  range  of  view 
widened,  these  difficulties  would  lessen,  if  not  disap- 
pear. The  difficulties  are  much  greater  on  the  side 
of  naturalism,  besides  the  monstrosities  that  are  in- 
volved in  the  hypothesis.  And  when  men  choose  the 
latter,  and  thereby  extrude  God  from  the  throne  of 
his  natural  government,  or  compliment  him  out  of  it, 


GENERAL    CAUSE.  343 

there  is  reason  to  suspect  tliat  the  thing  is  done  with 
the  view  of  excluding  him  from  his  moral  dominion. 
We  must  fall  back  on  the  state  of  the  heart,  in  seek- 
ing for  the  great  reason  why  men,  in  the  face  of  such 
preponderant  evidence  for  divine  providence,  will  have 
it  that  "  God  doth  not  know,  and  that  the  Almighty 
doth  not  consider." 

Christianity  is  based  upon  evidence.  The  reason 
why  evidence  is  necessary,  is  to  be  found  in  our  moral 
constitution  as  rational,  discriminating,  accountable 
agents ;  and  in  the  fact  that,  from  the  existence  of 
evil  in  the  world,  we  were  otherwise  liable  to  decep- 
tion in  reference  to  our  highest  interests.  It  could 
never  be  a  man's  duty  to  believe  in  a  revelation  claim- 
ing to  itself  the  authority  of  heaven,  unless  that  rev- 
elation bore,  legibly  on  its  front,  heaven's  signature, 
or  was  in  some  way  attended  with  heaven's  evidencing 
power.  The  evidence  that  attests  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, vast,  varied,  and  of  great  cumulative  power, 
though  it  be,  is  not,  however,  irresistible.  No  man 
is  warranted  to  expect  it  to  be  so.  Faith  is  a  moral 
act,  and,  while  resting  on  a  strong  groundwork  of 
proof,  it  must  have  some  difficulties  over  which  to 
triumph.  Origen,  speaking  of  the  difficulties  in  the 
Bible  revelation,  and  of  those  in  the  revelation  of  na- 
ture, says,  "In  both  we  see  a  self-toncealing,  self-re- 
vealing God,  who  makes  Himself  known  only  to  those 
who  earnestly  seek  Him;  in  both  are  found  stimu- 
lants to  faith,  and  occasions  for  unbelief"  "There 
is  light  enough,"  says  Pascal,  "for  those  who  sincerely 
wish  to  see ;  and  darkness  enough  for  those  of  an  op- 


342  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

posite  description."  Mr.  Newman  tells  us,  it  "super- 
sedes the  authoritative  force  of  outward  miracles  en- 
tirely," to  say  that  "a  really  overpowering  miraculous 
proof  would  have  destroyed  the  moral  character  of 
faith."  This,  however,  is  not  argument,  but  a  foolisli 
dogmatic  assertion.  The  Christian  miracles  are  of 
"  a  convincing  and  stupendous  character,"  and  yet  not 
so  overpowering  as  the  axiom  that  a  whole  is  greatei 
than  its  part ;  and  we  lack  sagacity  to  perceive  where 
lies  the  contradiction  between  these  statements.  Evi- 
dence is  obligatory  on  man,  not  because  it  is  over- 
powering or  irresistible,  but  because  it  preponderates. 
Indeed,  on  the  former  supposition,  to  talk  of  obliga- 
tion were  an  absurdity.  The  judge  on  the  bench  is 
every  day  deciding  important  cases,  not  on  the  ground 
that  the  evidence  is  absolutely  perfect,  but  because, 
notwithstanding  objections,  the  proof  on  the  one  side 
preponderates;  and  no  reasonable  man  questions  the 
validity  of  his  decisions.  The  external  and  internal 
evidences  of  Christianity  constitute  a  mass  of  proof 
fully  sufficient  to  justify  our  belief  in  its  truths ;  and, 
as  if  aware  of  the  force  of  it,  our  modern  infidels  at- 
tack one  part  of  it,  and  represent  us  as  if  resting  on 
that^  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rest.  Difficulties  there 
are,  both  in  the  record  and  in  the  outward  evidence. 
But  what  are  these  difficulties  compared  with  the 
greatly  preponderating  amount  of  clear  heavenly 
proof?  The  difficulties  arise  out  of  our  ignorance. 
Analogy  warrants  us  to  conclude  that  they  are  so  only 
relatively,  not  absolutely.  And  they  are  but  as.  the 
small  dust  in  the  balance  compared  with  the  thousand 


GENERAL    CAUSE.  343 

paradoxes  which  a  man  must  be  prepared  to  swallow 
who  denies  that  Christianity  is  an  authoritative  rev- 
elation from  heaven.  The  infidel  is  reconciled  to 
these  paradoxes  on  the  alleged  ground  of  objections 
which  appear  as  nothing  compared  to  them.  And 
this  furnishes  a  strong  presumption  that  the  will  has 
much  to  do  with  infidelity,  whether  it  be  named  deism 
or  spiritualism.  "Nor  do  we  well  know  what  multi- 
tudes, who  neglect  religion  on  account  of  the  alleged 
uncertainty  of  its  evidence,  could  reply,  if  God  were 
to  say  to  them, '  And  yet  on  such  evidence,  and  that  far 
inferior  in  degree,  you  have  .never  hesitated  to  ad^ 
when  your  own  temporal  interests  were  concerned. 
You  never  feared  to  commit  the  bark  of  your  wordly 
fortunes  to  that  fluctuating  element.  In  many  cases 
you  believed  on  the  testimony  of  others  what  seemed 
even  to  contradict  your  own  senses.  Why  were  you 
so  much  more  scrupulous  in  relation  to  ME  ?'  "^ 

The  cause  of  unbelief  among  the  Jews,  for  example, 
in  the  days  of  the  Saviour's  flesh,  could  not  be  a 
want  of  evidence, — for  that  evidence  was  numerous, 
varied,  and  brilliant.  Many,  in  our  day,  affect 
to  despise  the  evidence  from  miracles,  for  no  better 
reason,  we  are  persuaded,  than  that  it  is  against 
them.  But  the  Great  Teacher  rested  his  claims  on 
the  fact  of  his  miracles.  "If  I  do  not  the  works  of 
my  Father,"  said  he,  "  believe  me  not.  But  if  I  do, 
though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works ;  that  ye 
may  know  and  believe  that  the  Father  is  in  me  and  I 

'  Rogers'  Reason  and  Faith,  p.  26. 


344  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

in  him."  Their  fathers  had  beheld  the  mighty  works 
of  the  Lord  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  land  of  Ham, 
and  at  the  Red  Sea ;  but  never  did  they  witness  such 
a  visible  agency  multiplying,  in  quick  and  varied  suc- 
cession, its  deeds  of  benevolent  and  miraculous  power, 
as  was  daily  beheld  by  their  children.  They  bowed 
before  the  majesty  of  that  evidence  itself,  they  paid 
to  it  a  willing  homage,  they  were  fully  persuaded  that 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  so  long  .as  the  golden  dream 
of  an  earthly  monarchy  remained  unbroken;  and,  on 
the  strength  of  that  evidence,  would  have  proceeded 
at  once  to  make  him  their  king.  It  was  not  till  they 
felt  his  doctrines  thwarting  their  fondest  wishes, — not 
till  they  perceived  that  his  kingdom  had  no  battle  for 
the  warrior,  and  was  unaccompanied  with  confused 
noise  and  garments  rolled  in  blood,  not  till  they 
perceived  that  his  subjects  were  to  be  composed  of 
the  pure,  the  meek,  and  the  poor  in  spirit, — that  they 
hid,  as  it  were,  their  faces  from  him.  It  was,  there- 
fore, a  moral  cause  that  produced  Jewish  unbelief, — 
a  state  of  mind  that,  relatively  to  itself,  weakens 
evidence  the  most  powerful,  and  darkens  evidence 
the  most  brilliant.  His  religion  ran  counter  to  their 
moral  tendencies,  condemned  their  favorite  pursuits, 
and  frowned  on  their  grovelling  expectations.  And 
in  this  originated  that  carping  spirit  in  which  they 
ever  after  listened  to  his  discourses,  that  deadly  en- 
mity with  which  they  incessantly  pursued  him,  even 
when  performing  among  them  works  of  unparalelled 
grandeur  and  benevolence.  It  was  because  their 
deeds  were  evil,  that  they  hated  his  light.     When  he 


GENERAL   CAUSE.  345 

was  in  the  world,  the  world  hated  him  because  he  testi- 
fied of  it  that  the  works  thereof  are  evil. 

The  same  remarks  are  substantially  applicable  to 
the  hostility  which  has  been  shown  to  the  pure 
Gospel  in  every  succeeding  age.  If,  for  convenience, 
we  divide  infidelity  into  the  speculative  and  the 
practical,  it  will  be  found  that  both  these  forms, 
however  diiFerent  may  be  the  specific  process  by 
which  the  mind  in  each  case  settles  down  in  it,  may 
be  traced  to  the  same  moral  cause — the  repugnance 
in  human  nature  to  what  is  purely  spiritual  and 
divinely  authoritative.  Could  we,  for  instance,  have 
looked  into  the  hidden  chambers  of  imagery,  and 
beheld  the  processes  of  thought  and  feeling  in  which 
many  talented  infidels  investigated  the  Scripture 
testimony,  our  wonder  would  not  have  been  that  they 
landed  in  unbelief  The  religion  of  Jesus,  when 
summoned  to  the  bar  of  their  understanding,  has 
met  with  such  treatment  as  an  innocent  man  meets 
with  when  he  comes  before  a  hostile  jury.  Rather, 
we  should  say,  they  never  sufi'er  themselves  to  behold 
Christianity  in  all  its  radiant  glory,  nor  to  mark  its 
lofty  towers  and  stable  bulwarks ;  for,  as  they  advance 
on  their  way  to  the  temple  of  truth,  they  are  ever  and 
anon  raising  around  them  a  thick  cloud  of  dust  and 
darkness.  In  most  cases,  we  doubt  not,  Christianity 
and  its  evidences  have  never  been  examined  by  such 
men  at  all.  In  .our  times,  it  is  fashionable,  in  many 
quarters,  to  ignore  the  evidences  altogether, — to  pass 
them  over  with  a  proud  sneer  as  things  antiquated 
and  .effete,  and  to  judge  the  Gospel  according  to  the 


346  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

conceptions  of  the  individual  mind.  In  other  words, 
the  case  is  prejudged,  before  the  witnesses  are  exam- 
ined, if  examined  at  all.  And  in  other  cases,  while  an 
inquiry  into  the  evidences  has  been  entered  upon,  it 
has  been  with  a  lurking  wish  that  the  examination,  after 
all,  might  prove  unfavorable.  In  such  circumstances, 
the  wish  biasses  the  judgment,  and  the  inevitable  result 
is  that  the  man  can  never  believe  to  be  true  what  he 
wishes  may  be  false. 

Now  this  process,  which  ends  in  unbelief,  has  its 
origin  in  the  aversion  of  the  mind  to  the  high  and 
holy  principles  of  the  Gospel.  There  is  a  demand, 
made  in  that  Gospel,  of  every  lofty  imagination,  and 
every  high  thought,  being  brought  into  captivity 
to  Christ,  which  is  repugnant  to  that  reckless  inde- 
pendence of  mind  in  which  such  a  sceptic  glories. 
To  such  a  mind,  Christianity  is  too  humbling ;  its 
meek,  and  lowly,  and  crucified  Saviour  appears  mean 
and  uninteresting,  and  he  easily  turns  from  the 
thought  of  him  who  has  no  form  or  comeliness  to  the 
contemplation  of  some  stormy  hero  of  romance.  Its 
strict  morality, — exercising  a  minute  inspection  over 
every  movement  of  the  inner  man,  and  claiming  to 
be  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the 
heart, — is  felt  to  be  an  uncomfortable  restraint;  like 
an  individual  who  follows  us  through  every  path  and 
winding  which  we  take  to  avoid  his  presence.  Above 
all,  its  doctrine  of  the  cross, — staining,  as  it  does,  all 
human  glory,  reducing  the  loftiest  to  a  level  with  the 
meanest  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  making  all  heavenly 
blessedness  to  depend  on  him  who  was  crucified  as  a 


GENERAL   CAUSE.  347 

felon  between  two  tliieves, — outrages  that  high  sense 
of  merit  which  would  exalt  itself  as  the  eagle  and  set 
its  nest  among  the  stars.  David  Hume,  somewhere 
in  his  writings,  acknowledges,  as  we  have  already- 
noticed,  that  his  readings  in  the  New  Testament  were 
but  scanty.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  how 
such  a  mind  would  sit  down  to  the  perusal  of  some 
of  the  discourses  of  the  Redeemer  and  the  letters  of 
his  apostles.  Other  infidels,  of  whom  Rousseau  is 
an  example,  have  paid  an  involuntary  homage  to  the 
character  of  the  Saviour.  They  have  admired  him 
going  about,  like  the  embodied  spirit  of  benevolence, 
continually  doing  good.  But  they  have  shrunk  back 
from  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  and  the  uncompro- 
mising requirements  of  Christ's  laws,  just  as  a  person 
with  a  diseased  eye  instinctively  retires  into  the  shade 
when  the  frail  organ  is  about  to  be  exposed  to  the 
light  of  the  sun.  Mr.  Emerson  professes  to  reverence 
Jesus  Christ  as  belonging  to  the  true  race  of  prophets, 
as  "  the  only  soul  in  history  who  has  appreciated  the 
worth  of  a  man ;"  and  yet  he  spurns  the  idea  of  re- 
ceiving religion  and  law  from  his  lips,  and  of  sub- 
ordinating his  nature  to  the  nature  of  Christ.  Mr. 
Parker  does  not  conceal  his  hatred  to  "  the  Popular 
Christianity,"  because  it  represents  man  as  fallen 
and  depraved,  and  makes  so  much  of  the  one  mediator 
between  God  and  man.  And  when  Mr.  Newman  tells 
us  that  he  was  forced,  against  all  his  prepossessions, 
to  renounce  everything  distinctively  Christian ;  and 
would  have  us  to  believe  that  the  will,  in  his  case, 
durst  "  not  dictate,  whereto  the  inquiries  of  the  un- 


348  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

derstauding  should  lead;"^  we  appeal  to  his  "Phases," 
for  a  refutation  of  such  assertions.  We  have,  in  such 
men,  the  pride  without  the  greatness  of  the  mighty 
fallen  Intellect  in  Milton,  who  said, — 

"  In  my  choice, 
To  reign  is  worth  ambition,  though  in  hell : 
Better  to  reign  in  hell,  than  serve  in  heaven  !" 

Oh !  these  intolerable  evidences !  Better  far  be  re- 
conciled to  all  the  strange  paradoxes  implied  in 
disowning  Christianity,  than  submit  ourselves  to 
"church,  book,  person."^  Such  is  the  choice  of  men 
who  are  laboring  to  undermine  the  historical  verity 
of  the  sacred  writings ;  and  who,  baptizing  an  enlight- 
ened attachment  to  them  by  the  ill-sounding  name 
of  '  Bibliolatry,'  would  cut  the  link  asunder,  and  leave 
us  to  wander  at  will  after  the  undefined  and  un 
definable  thing  called  '  absolute  religion.^ 

It  is,  in  like  manner,  with  that  cold  insensibility 
to  divine  truth, — that  practical  form  of  infidelity  which 
frequently  prevails  among  the  multitude.  There  is 
an  unbelief  common  among  many  of  the  would-bo 
giants  of  the  earth,  and  one  that  exists  among  the 
lowly  walks  of  other  men.  But  as  the  object  of  their 
contempt  or  disregard  is  the  same,  so  are  the  specific 
causes  to  be  traced  to  the  same  great  evil  principle — 
an  inveterate  love  of  those  practices  and  pursuits 
which  the  light  of  divine  truth  reproves  and  condemns. 
There  are  immense  masses  of  our  population  who 
perhaps   never   spent   five   minutes  of  their  lives   in 

■  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  219.  ''  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  372. 


GENERAL    CAUSE.  349 

considering  whether  the  Bible  were  a  revelation  from 
God,  or  a  cunningly-devised  fable.  The  Bible,  as  a 
book,  may  be  found  beneath  their  roof ;  but  its  grand 
truths  have  not  been  rightly  apprehended  and  duly 
felt,  because  the  volume  has  seldom  been  opened,  and, 
when  opened,  not  read  with  half  the  interest  with 
which  they  read  some  fairy  tale.  The  light  which 
it  affords  shineth  in  the  darkness,  but  the  dark- 
ness admitteth  it  not.  These  individuals  would  per- 
haps count  it  impiety  to  wield  the  weapons  of  the 
sceptic  against  the  Gospel,  were  they  able  for  the 
task,  and  would  shrink  with  horror  from  the  thought 
of  any  way  traducing  the  divine  Saviour;  and  yet 
they  can  pass  from  day  to  day  as  little  elevated  by  all 
that  is  magnificent  and  sublime,  as  little  impressed 
with  all  that  is  marvellous  in  condescension,  as  little 
attracted  by  all  that  is  beauteous  in  holiness,  as  if 
God's  Son,  in  whom  meet  pre-eminently  all  this  gran- 
deur and  loveliness,  had  never  manifested  himself  to 
the  world.  This  is  formalism, — and,  as  a  species  of 
unbelief,  this  is  what  the  Gospel  condemns. 

The  Bible  comes  to  us  as  a  message  from  the  skies. 
In  it,  God  utters  his  voice  loudly  and  intelligibly  in 
the  ears  of  men.  It  is  a  message  of  mercy  from  the 
throne  of  the  Eternal  to  us  the  guilty  and  rebellious, 
making  known  a  divine  Saviour,  and  offering,  on  the 
ground  of  his  atoning  sacrifice,  a  free  and  a  full  salva- 
tion. In  making  such  declarations,  the  Bible  deals 
with  men  as  rational  and  accountable  agents.  It  has 
no  blessings  for  those  who  are  not  deterred  by  its 
threatenings,   nor  won  by  its  promises.     It  presents 


350  GENERAL    CAUSE. 

to  the  mind  saving  truth,  which,  in  order  to  prove 
efficacious,  must  be  believegl ;  and,  in  order  to  be 
believed,  must  be  carefully  read  and  rightly  under- 
stood. How,  then,  are  we  to  account  for  the  melan- 
choly fact,  that  men  possessing  the  sacred  volume, 
and  acknowledging  it  to  be  a  revelation  from  God, 
are  little,  if  at  all,  influenced  by  the  momentous 
statements  which  it  contains?  That  volume  finds  a 
place  in  the  house,  but  it  has  no  home  in  the  heart. 
It  is  assented  to  as  the  law  and  the  testimony,  the 
only  infallible  directory  of  faith  and  morals.  But  its 
grand  truths  are  seldom,  if  ever,  made  the  object  of 
devout  contemplation ;  its  precepts  are  seldom  taken 
as  a  light  unto  the  feet  and  a  lamp  unto  the  path. 
Whence  originates  this  insensibility  to  all  that  is 
majestic  and  merciful,  this  unwillingness  to  bring 
the  mind  into  contact  with  the  purifying  and  elevat- 
ing truths  of  Christianity, — ^but  in  a  deceitful  sus- 
picion that  its  grovelling  earthly  pursuits  would  be 
disturbed,  that  its  moral  tendencies  would  be  thwarted, 
that  the  searching  light  of  the  Gospel  would  make 
manifest  its  unholy  thoughts  and  aifections,  just  as 
a  ray  of  the  sun,  let  through  the  chink  of  an  old  ruin, 
reveals  the  unsightly  guests  that  dwell  within?  It 
were  well  if  some  of  our  literary  men,  and  philosophic 
religionists,  who  cry  out  against  soulless  creeds  and 
dogmatic  Christianity,  would  lay  the  blame  at  the 
right  quarter,  and  not  give  a  false  value  to  human 
nature,  at  the  expense  of  depreciating  historical  truth. 
He  who  "  saw  with  open  eye  the  mystery  of  the  soul," 
accounted  for  the  rejection  or  feeble  influence  of  his 


GENERAL    CAUSE.  351 

gospel,  by  saying,  "  men  loved  darkness  ratlier  tlian 
light,  because  their  deeds  were  evil."  And  all  history 
proves,  what  the  Scripture  affirms,  that  the  natural 
man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 


The  river  is  traced  up  to  its  source.  But,  in  order 
to  account  fully  for  its  rushing  waters,  we  must 
notice  the  tributary  streams  that  it  receives  in  its 
passage.  And,  among  the  specific  and  subordinate 
causes  of  infidelity,  we  are  disposed  to  enumerate — 
Speculative  Philosophy,  Social  Disaffection,  the  Cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity,  Religious  Intolerance,  and 
the  Disunion  of  the  Church.  These  we  shall  briefly 
notice. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY. 

Speculative  Philosophy  inevitable — Indicates  a  thinking  and  re- 
flective age-— Influences  the  religion  of  an  age — Has  ever  been 
tampering  with  Christian  truth — Gnosticism  in  the  primitive 
Church — Allegorical  method  of  interpretation — Sacramental  the- 
ory —  Platonism  —  Scholasticism  —  Connection  between  Modern 
Speculative  Philosophy  and  forms  of  Modern  Infidelity  —  The 
Sensational  Philosophy — Deistical  Writers — Infuence  of  Sensa- 
tionalism on  works  of  science  and  common  literature — The  old 
Unitarianism — French  Sensationalism :  Condillac — School  of  Vol- 
taire— Protracted  influences  of  Sensationalism — The  Ideal  Philo 
sophy :  Germany — The  human  mind  made  determinator  of  re- 
ligious truth — Contempt  for  Evidences — Seen  in  Strauss — Influ- 
ence of  Idealism  in  our  own  country — Carlyle — Emerson — Parker 
— Newman — Mackay — Morell — Importance  of  maintaining  His- 
torical Christianity — Harmony  between  a  true  Faith  and  a  true 
Philosophy. 

The  rise  of  a  speculative  philosbpliy,  in  any  age  or 
country  where  there  are  thinkers,  seems  inevitable. 
It  is  the  natural  consequence  of  the  mind's  desire 
to  penetrate  into  the  mysteries  of  existence,  and  to 
know  all  things.  Man  himself  is  a  mystery,  the 
world  around  him  is  a  mystery,  the  great  God  above 
him  is  a  mystery,  and  the  relations  between  each  and 
all  of  them  are  profoundly  and  impressively  myste- 


SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY.  353 

rious.  And,  while  the  great  majority  of  men  never 
attempt  to  lift  up  the  veil,  but  are  content  with  the 
knowledge  that  lies  on  the  surface  of  things,  there 
are  those  who  must  endeavor  to  get  beyond  and 
solve  the  problems  of  mysterious  existence.  Every 
country  that  has  emerged  from  barbarism,  and  at- 
tained to  any  degree  of  mental  cultivation,  is  more 
or  less  characterized  by  philosophical  speculation. 
This,  in  itself,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  evil.  It 
indicates  a  thinking  and  reflecting  age,  and  marks 
the  advancement  of  a  community  in  mental  culture. 
The  evil  is,  when  it  spurns  the  investigation  of  pal- 
pable facts  and  indubitable  evidence,  treats  as  empirical 
the  honest  method  of  induction,  and  incautiously 
passes  the  bounds  of  all  fair  and  legitimate  inquiry. 
Then  it  becomes  intolerant  of  the  world  of  realities, 
is  vainly  puffed  up,  and,  intruding  into  those  things 
which  are  not  seen,  would,  instead  of  proving  a  hand- 
maid to  true  religion,  assume  the  air  of  an  imperious 
mistress,  and  decide  its  shape,  dress,  and  laws.  To 
this  charge,  the  greater  number  of  the  systems  of 
philosophy  that  have  emanated  from  the  schools  must 
plead  guilty. 

It  is  very  obvious  that  the  philosophy  of  an  age 
must  materially  influence  the  religion  of  that  age. 
The  great  subjects  with  which  speculative  philosophy 
is  conversant,  are  those  which  lie  within  the  domain 
of  natural  and  revealed  truth.  It  cannot  touch  upon 
the  finite  and  the  infinite,  upon  man,  the  universe, 
and  God,  without  coming  into  contact  with  some  of 
the  great  essential  principles  of  religion.     Its   specu- 


354  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

lations  upon  man  affect  liis  position  as  a  fallen  being, 
the  subject  of  moral  government,  and  an  heir  of  im- 
mortality. Its  speculations  upon  the  universe  bear 
upon  the  evidence  of  creative  power,  and  providential 
control,  and  the  existence  of  good  and  evil.  And  its 
speculations  upon  God,  the  Absolute,  as  philosophy 
terms  Him,  bear  upon  his  personality,  independent 
existence  and  agency,  and  the  relations  in  which  He 
stands  to  the  material  universe  and  the  human  race. 
Views  on  these  great  subjects,  at  particular  periods, 
notwithstanding  the  clear  and  definite  statements 
regarding  them  in  the  sacred  volume,  have  been  very 
much  moulded  by  the  reigning  intellectual  philosophy. 
And  that  divine  record  itself,  so  firmly  established  in 
history,  and  speaking  in  the  tone  of  heaven's  au- 
thority, has  been  made  to  give  forth  its  utterances 
according  as  philosophy  dictated  and  allowed.  The 
servant,  usurping  the  place  of  the  master  has,  as 
commonly  happens,  stripped  the  master  of  every 
vestige  of  authority,  put  words  into  his  mouth,  or 
given  the  interpretation,  and  that  not  unfrequently 
a  false  one,  of  all  that  he  said. 

The  history  of  every  age,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Gospel  until  now,  too  clearly  shows  that  a  speculative 
philosophy  has  ever  been  tampering  with  "  the  law 
and  the  testimony,"  corrupting  the  simplicity,  and 
weakening  the  power,  of  Christian  truth ;  and  been  a 
subordinate  cause  in  producing,  or  aiding,  the  irre- 
ligion  and  scepticism  of  cultivated  minds.  The 
Pauline  epistles  testify,  that,  before  the  apostles  had 
left  the  world,  philosopliy,  in  some  of  its  forms,  was 


SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY.  355 

seeking  to  exert  au  evil  influence  on  the  church. ;  so 
that  Paul  needed  to  protest  against  its  intrusion,  and 
warn  the  disciples  of  its  spirit.  Christianity,  in  the 
primitive  age,  had  obtained  a  footing  in  many  of  those 
cities  where,  on  account  of  their  proximity  to  Greece, 
the  Oriental  and  Grecian  philosophies  prevailed. 
These  philosophies  were  rife  with  bold  and  unhal- 
lowed speculations  respecting  such  things  as  the  mode 
of  the  Divine  existence,  and  the  nature  of  the  Divine 
agency.  The  sublime  mysteries  of  the  Gospel  were 
just  such  subjects  into  which  they  wished  to  intrude. 
And,  from  a  vain  philosophy — vain,  because  tran- 
scending the  boundaries  of  fair  and  legitimate  inquiry, 
— the  simplicity  of  the  faith  had  no  less  to  dread 
thaii  from  the  misapprehensions  and  corruptions  of 
Judaism.  Gnosticism  did  in  the  church,  in  primi- 
tive times,  what  rationalism  has  been  doing  in 
modern  times.  "In  all  cases,"  says  Neander,  ''the 
gnostics  were  for  explaining  outward  things  from 
within — that  is,  from  their  intuitions,  "which  were 
above  all  doubt.  "^  Gnosticism  was  the  philosophic 
garb  in  which  infidelity,  with  great  professions  of 
reverence,  laid  its  hands  on  the  Gospels,  reduced 
to  its  own  standard  the  revealed  mysteries,  and  dis- 
turbed the  peace  and  purity  of  the  early  church. 
This  philosophy  was  a  fruitful  source  of  scepticism 
and  irreligion,  and  from  it  seems,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  have  emanated  those  deadly  errors  respecting  the 
person  and  work  of  Christ  which  disfigured  and  tore 
in  pieces  the  fair  form  of  primitive  Christianity. 

'  Cburcli  History,  vol.  ii.;  p.  71.     (Clarke's  edition.) 


356  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

The  corruptions  of  Christianity  pave  the  way  for 
the   denial   of  Christianity   itself     And   it   has  often 
been  remarked,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  corruption  of 
religious  truth  which  might   not   be  shown  to   have 
existed  during  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian age.     These  corruptions  are,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  be  traced  to  the  prevailing  speculative  philosophies, 
abetting  and  being  abetted  by  the  depraved  tendency 
in  man  to  mutilate,   or  add  to,  deform  and  weaken, 
the    revelations  of  heaven.     It  is  to  a   philosophical 
influence,  for   the   most   part,  that  we  ascribe    those 
unsound   methods    of  interpretation,    which,    in    the 
shape  of  allegory  and  mysticism,  were  carried  so  far 
by  Origen  and  others,  and  which  found  hidden  mean- 
ings in  statements  that  were  perfectly  plain,  and  saw 
nothing    incomprehensible    in     doctrines     the    most 
mysterious.     The    Alexandrian    school    of    divinity, 
headed  by  Origen,  became  famous  for  its  union  of  a 
spurious  philosophy  with  Christianity.     Some   of  the 
Christian  fathers  employed  the  same  allegorical  method 
in  interpreting   the  inspired  record,   that  the  Pagan 
Platonists  employed   in  commenting  on   the  popular 
mythology  and  the  Iliad  of  Homer.     And  this  tended, 
very  much,  to  change  Christianity  from  the  pure  state 
in  which  it  had  been  given  to  the  world  by  the  Lord 
and  his  apostles. 

It  is  to  a  philosophical  influence,  in  a  great  degree, 
also,   that  must  be    traced   the    sacramental   theory 
Baptismal  regeneration   does   not    date   its  birth   m 
modern  times.     It  was  held  by  many  of  the  primitive 
fathers.     We   find  it,   where  we   find  almost   all  the 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  357 

corruptions  of  Christianity,  in  the  first  three  centuries ; 
and  as  the  fruit  of  a  vain  philosophy  tampering  with 
the  spirituality  and  simplicity  of  the  church.  It  was 
common  to  impute  a  mystic  efficacy  to  the  use  of 
certain  terms,  such  as  the  repetition  of  the  name  of 
Jesus,  and  to  the  practice  of  certain  forms.  This 
flowed  from  the  philosophical  notions  about  matter. 
Matter  was  alleged  to  have  certain  evil  tendencies, 
while,  co-existent  with  these,  were  some  inherent 
powers  which,  being  controlled  by  the  divine  will, 
counteracted  the  evil.  This  control  was  believed  to 
be  associated  with  the  utterance  of  certain  words  and 
the  performance  of  certain  rites.  Hence  the  mystical 
and  superstitious  efficacy  of  the  sacraments.*  But 
for  the  physical  philosophy  of  the  schools,  and  the 
general  belief  in  magic  in  the  early  ages  of  the  church, 
it  may  be  questioned  if  the  sacramental  theory  would 
have  met  with  such  a  ready  reception.  These  invested 
the  ministers  of  religion  with  tremendous  spiritual 
power,  made  them,  by  virtue  of  their  office,  dispensers 
of  the  grace  of  God,  and  originated  that  system  of 
sacramental  efficiency  which,  overshadowing  the  pure 
gospel,  has  corrupted  God's  religion  into  man's  relig- 
ion, and,  in  thousands  of  cases,  has  induced  thinking 
men  to  reject  both. 

Plato  and  Aristotle  were  the  chiefs  of  the  ancient 
schools.  In  them  may  be  said  to  have  centered  all 
the  speculative  philosophy  of  Greece.  And  the  in- 
fluence of  the  one  in  the  Eastern  churches,  for  several 
centuries   subsequent  to  the  apostles,  was  manifested 

'  See  '\''auglian's  Corruptions  of  Christianity,  p.  293,  &-c. 


358  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

in  debasing  and  changing  the  very  substance  of  re- 
vealed truth ;  while  the  influence  of  the  other  in  the 
West,  during  the  middle  ages,  was  exerted  in  defend- 
ing and  strengthening  the  corruptions.  It  is  not  ;i 
question  with  us,  what  use  these  philosophies  were  in 
whetting  the  human  intellect,  or  how  far  they  proved 
to  be  "the  best  gymnastic  of  the  mind,"  but  what 
bearings  had  they  upon  that  truth  which,  coming  from 
above,  is  the  divinest  and  truest  philosophy.  And 
history  warrants  the  assertion  that  they  spoiled  it. 
corrupted  its  purity,  innovated  into  its  very  essence. 
and  were  fruitful  sources  of  formalism  and  infidelity. 

It  has  been  well  remarked,  by  Dr.  Hampden,  that 
of  the  two  philosophies,  in  their  bearing  on  religious 
opinion,  "Platonism  has  been  more  arrogant  in  its 
pretensions :  it  has  aspired,  not  to  modify,  but  to 
supersede  Christian  truth.  Christianity  had  to  strug- 
gle in  its  infancy  against  the  theology  of  the  school  of 
Alexandria,  which  regarded  the  Christian  system  as 
an  intrusion  on  the  philosophical  ascendancy  which 
it  had  hitherto  enjoyed.  The  New-Platonists  dis- 
puted the  originality  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  assert- 
ing that  the  sayings  of  our  Lord  were  all  derived  from 
the  doctrines  of  their  master.^  Nor  was  the  mischief 
from  the  Alexandrian  school  neutralized,  when,  its 
open  hostility  being  found  ineffectual,  disciples  of 
that  school  merged  themselves  into  the  Christian 
name.  The  accommodation  which  then  took  place 
between  the  theories  of  their  philosophy  and  the  doc- 

'  Infidelity  performs  a  cycle.  Mr.  Emerson  says— a  thing  3asier 
said  than  proved — "  Christianity  is  in  Plato's  Phaedo." 


SPECULATIVE    rillLOSOPnY.  359 

trines  of  the  faith,  proved  a  snare  to  members  of  the 
church.  Hence,  upon  the  whole,  resulted,  even  in  the 
beginnings  of  the  Gospel,  an  ambiguity  respecting  the 
peculiar  rights  of  the  antagonist  systems.  And  this 
ambiguity  affected  the  question  of  the  self-originated 
divine  character  of  the  Christian  truth.  "^ 

It  deserves  notice  that  Neander  represents  Platon 
ism  as  having  had  a  double  influence  in  relation  to 
Christianit}^  He,  speaking  from  his  own  experience, 
regards  it  as  having  been,  in  many  cases,  a  transition 
point  to  the  Gospel.  But  the  question  is,  what  was 
its  influence  when  carried  into  Christianity  itself? 
The  illustrious  church  historian  himself  shall  answer : 
"  the  New  Platonism  could  not  bring  itself  to  acquiesce, 
particularly,  in  that  humility  of  knowledge^  and  that 
renunciation  of  self  which  Christianity  required.  It 
could  not  be  induced  to  sacrifice  its  philosophical, 
aristocratic  notions,  to  a  religion  which  would  make 
the  higher  life  a  common  possession  for  all  mankind. 
The  religious  eclecticism  of  this  direction  of  the  spirit 
could  do  no  otherwise  than  resist  the  exclusive  and 
sole  supremacy  of  the  religion  that  suffered  no  other  at 
its  side,  but  would  subject  all  to  itself"^  Accordingly, 
as  he  shows,  it  was  from  this  school  that  the  most  nu- 
merous as  well  as  the  most  formidable  antagpnists  of 
Christianity  proceeded. 

While  the  Platonism  of  Alexandria  was  thus  gain 
ing  an  ascendancy  in  the  early  church,  recommending 
itself  to  the  imagination  of  the  contemplative  as  the 

*  Hampden's  Bampton  Lecture,  p.  10. 

^  Neander's  Church  History,  vol.  i.,  pp.  46,  218.    (Clarke's  edition.) 


360  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

revealer  of  mysteries,  and  thus  transmuting  the  pure 
gold  of  Christianity  into  an  impure  mixture;  the 
philosophy  of  Aristotle  was,  for  the  most  part,  re- 
garded with  aversion,  as  the  armor-bearer  of  heretics 
and  of  the  assailants  of  the  faith.  But,  during  the 
middle  ages,  the  Scholastic  Philosophy  had  its  throne 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  Christian  church;  and  its 
supremacy  is  still  visible  in  the  Romish  system — the 
most  corrupt  form  of  Christianity  that  has  been  giv^en 
to  the  world.  From  the  seventh  century,  and  onward, 
the  philosophy  of  the  Stagyrite  began  to  be  exclusively 
studied ;  and  was  resorted  to  for  weapons,  not  so  much 
in  defence  of  scriptural  truth,  as  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  and  perpetuating  the  corruptions  and 
superstitions  with  which  the  church  was  overrun. 
"The  question  of  the  influence  of  Aristotle's  philos- 
ophy is  more  important  on  this  very  account,  that  it 
has  been  more  subtile,  more  silently  insinuated  into,  and 
spread  over,  the  whole  system  of  Christian  doctrines. 
Being  employed  as  an  instrument  of  disputation,  it  has 
not  been  confined,  like  Platonism,  to  certain  leading 
points  of  Christianity,  as,  for  instance,  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Trinity  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  but  has 
been  applied  to  the  systematic  development  of  the 
sacred  truth  in  all  its  parts." 

"It  is  the  metaphysics  of  the  school  which  form 
the  texture  of  the  Roman  theology,  and  by  which  that 
system  is  maintained.  In  the  destitution  of  Scripture- 
facts  for  the  support  of  the  theological  structure, 
the  method  of  subtile  distinctions  and  reasonings  has 
been  found  of  admirable  efficacy.     It  eludes  the  op- 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  361 

ponent,  who,  not  being  trained  to  tliis  dialectical  war- 
fare, is  not  aware,  that  all  such  argumentation  is  a 
tacit  assumption  of  the  point  in  controversy;  or  is 
perplexed  and  confounded  by  the  elaborate  subtleties 
of  the  apologist.  .  .  .  The  resistance,  which  the 
Roman  church  has  shown  against  improvements  in 
Natural  Philosophy,  is  no  inconsiderable  evidence  of 
the  connection  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  with  the 
ancient  logical  philosophy  of  the  schools.  There  has 
been  a  constant  fear,  lest,  if  that  philosophy  should 
be  exploded,  some  important  doctrines  could  not  be 
maintained."^ 

This  contentious  philosophy,  existing  in  the  bosom 
of  the  church  for  many  centuries,  "  clothed  in  the 
purple  of  spiritual  supremacy,  and  giving  the  law  of 
faith  to  the  subject-consciences  of  men,"  was  a 
fruitful  source  of  scepticism  and  infidelity.  Not  a 
few  distinguished  names,  including  scholars  of  emi- 
nence and  several*  of  the  popes,  have  been  mentioned 
as  instances  in  which  doubt  and  disputation,  taking 
the  place  of  the  love  of  truth,  engendered  a  cold  or 
profligate  disbelief  Mr.  Hallam,  speaking  of  the  un- 
bounded admiration  which  the  schoolmen  had  for 
the  writings  of  Aristotle,  says:  "With  all  their  ap- 
paTent  conformity  to  the  received  creed,  there  was,  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  circumstances,  a  great 
deal  of  real  deviation  from  orthodoxy,  and  even  of 
infidelity.  The  scholastic  mode  of  dispute,  admitting 
of  no  termination,  and  producing  no  conviction,  was 
the  sure  cause  of  scepticism ;  and  the  system  of 
'  Hampden's  Bampton  Lectures,  pp.  12,  385, 


362  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

Aristotle,  especially  with  the  commentaries  of  AveiToes, 
bore  an  aspect  very  unfavorable  to  natural  religion. 
The  Aristotelian  philosophy,  even  in  the  hands  of 
the  master,  was  like  a  barren  tree,  that  conceals  its 
want  of  fruit  by  profusion  of  leaves.  But  the  scho- 
lastic ontology  was  much  worse.  "^  Men,  in  order  to 
display  their  ingenuity,  involved  in  perplexity  the  most 
important  truths,  fostered  a  spirit  the  very  reverse 
of  that  with  which  it  becomes  us  to  approach  the 
Sacred  Oracles,  made  the  worse  not  unfrequently 
appear  the  better  reason,  and,  in  some  instances,  went 
so  far  as  to  take  up  the  false  and  destructive  position, 
that  opinions  which  were  philosophically  true  might 
be  theologically  false.  What  Milton  says  of  the  fallen 
angels  and  their  speculations,  is  strikingly  descriptive 
of  the  schoolmen  and  the  dialectical  abuses  in  which 
they  passionately  indulged : — 

"  They  found  no  end,  in  wandering  niazes  lost. 

******* 

Vain  wisdom  all,  and  false  philosophy." 

And  just  because  the  philosophy  was  false,  and  the 
wisdom  vain,  the  Christian  faith  encountered  it  in  a 
dangerous  enemy  under  the  disguise  of  a  professed 
friend. 

It  is,  however,  of  the  connection  subsisting  between 
the  modern  speculative  philosophy  and  the  forms  of 
modern  infidelity,  that  we  wish  more  especially  to 
speak.  Two  philosophies,  distinguished  from  each 
other  by  very  broad  characteristics,  though,  in  so  far 

'  Hallam's  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iii.,  p.  536. 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  oGu 

as  religion  is  concerned,  often  tending  substantially  to 
the  same  result,  have  played  very  prominent  parts  in 
modern  times.  We  allude  to  what  have  been  aptly 
designated  sensationalism  and  idealism.  The  influence 
of  these  philosophies,  when  pushed  to  their  extremes, 
has  been  productive  of  a  vast  amount  of  the  infidelity 
which,  during  the  last  and  the  present  century,  has  pre- 
vailed in  the  departments  of  scriptural  exegesis,  litera- 
ture, and  science. 

The  sensational  philosophy  has  had  a  wide-spread 
influence,  in  many  quarters,  in  destroying  the  very  fun- 
damental principles  of  natural  and  revealed  religion. 
It  was  in  fact,  at  one  period,  the  creed  of  nearly  the 
whole  of  philosophical  Europe.  Hobbes  is  the  precur- 
sor of  modern  sensationalism.  He,  by  resolving  every 
operation  of  the  mind  into  transformed  sensations, 
based  his  theory  upon  avowed  materialism,  struck  at 
the  root  of  all  religion,  precluded  us  from  having  any 
real  conception  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  shut  us  out 
from  all  other  existences  but  matter  and  a  material 
world.  His  Psychology  is  expressed  in  the  maxim: 
niliil  est  intellectu  quod  non  prius  fuerit  in  sensu. 
Nothing,  according  to  him,  is  in  the  intellect,  but 
what  was  previously  in  the  sense.  It  is  chiefly  owing, 
however,  to  the  circumstance  of  his  name  having 
become  so  much  associated  with  that  of  Locke,  that 
the  philosopher  of  Malmesbury  has  exerted  such  an 
influence  in  the  spread  of  sensationalism.  The  sys- 
tem of  the  "Leviathan,"  and  that  of  the  "Essay  on 
the  Human  Understanding,"  have  been  confounded. 
And  a  corruption,  or  an  exaggerated  development  of 


364  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

Locke's  principles,  has  been  imputed  to  him  as  if  he 
were  its  veritable  author.  But  the  difference  between 
them  is  fundamental.  The  sensationalism  of  Locke 
has  no  necessary  tendency  to  materialism,  whereas 
materialism  is  not  only  the  landing-place,  but  the 
foundation  of  the  theory  of  Hobbes.  '^They  differ," 
says  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  "not  only  in  all  their 
premises,  and  many  of  their  conclusions,  but  in  their 
manner  of  philosophizing  itself  Locke  had  no  preju- 
dice which  could  lead  him  to  imbibe  doctrines  from 
the  enemy  of  liberty  and  of  religion."  The  province 
which  Locke  assigns  to  reflection,  and  his  maintain- 
ing that  the  senses  do  not  furnish  the  intellect  with 
the  whole  of  its  ideas,  clear  him  of  the  charge  of  a 
tendency  to  materialism.  How,  then,  has  his  name 
become  allied  with  the  pernicious  dogmas  of  the 
materialist  school  that  flourished  in  the  eighteenth 
century ;  and  how  comes  M.  Cousin  to  say,  that 
"  since  the  metaphysic  of  Locke  crossed  the  channel, 
on  the  light  and  brilliant  wings  of  Voltaire's  imagina- 
tion, sensualism  has  reigned  in  France  without  con- 
tradiction, and  with  an  authority  of  which  there  is  no 
parallel  in  the  whole  history  of  philosophy?"  The 
explanation  is  to  be  found  in  what  Sir  W.  Hamilton 
calls  "  the  too  partial  principles"  of  Locke,  which  the 
French  school,  represented  by  Condillac  and  Cabanis, 
much  exaggerated.  The  sensuous  origin  of  our 
knowledge,  though  not  to  the  exclusion  of  reflection, 
has  a  very  prominent  place  assigned  to  it  in  the 
"Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding;"  and  it  is 
this   part   of  his   system   that   the   sensational  school 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  365 

has  drawn  out,  and  founded  thereon  a  scheme  of 
materialism  destructive  of  all  the  principles  of  morality 
and  religion. 

It  has  been  said,  "  that  Locke  distinctly  enough 
foresaw  the  idealistic  and  sceptical  arguments  which 
might  be  drawn  from  his  principles.  He  did  not 
draw  them,  because  he  thought  them  frivolous."  But 
others  did.  In  our  own  country  Berkeley  derived 
from  them  his  arguments  against  the  existence  of 
matter  and  a  material  world ;  and  David  Hume,  tak- 
ing a  bold  step  in  advance,  involved  both  mind  and 
matter  in  doubt  and  darkness.  Berkeley  laid  hold 
on  Locke's  principle,  that  our  knowledge  of  external 
things  is  not  immediate  but  through  the  interven- 
tion of  ideas,  and  maintained  that  matter  is  not 
a  reality  but  an  inference ;  that  "  all  the  choir  of 
heaven  and  furniture  of  earth — all  those  bodies  which 
compose  the  mighty  frame  of  the  world — have  not  any 
subsistence  without  a  mind."  Hume,  too  acute  not 
to  see  the  inference,  and  too  sceptical  not  to  draw  it, 
showed  that  the  existence  of  mind  as  well  as  matter 
was  a  mere  inference,  and  that  nothing  real  was  left 
us  but  a  succession  of  impressions  and  ideas.  These 
speculations  were,  in  the  last  degree,  adverse  to  the 
interests  of  religion. 

Philosophical  scepticism,  within  certain  limits,  does 
not  necessarily  imply  religious  scepticism.  But  in 
the  case  of  Hume  it  was  universal — involving  in 
inextricable  doubt  and  confusion  the  whole  region  of 
morals  and  religion.  And  its  effect  on  multitudes 
who  had  neither  the  inclination,  nor  ability,  to  follow 


366  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  philosopher  through  all  his  subtle  windings,  was 
seen  in  a  contemptuous  disregard  of  everything  lying 
beyond  the  senses  as  wrapped  up  in  the  most  per- 
plexing doubt  and  mystery.  It  is  indisputable  that 
the  stupid  deistical  school  of  writers  which  flourished 
during  the  last  century,  a  school  into  which  Locke 
never  would  have  entered,  fortified  themselves  with 
many  of  the  conclusions  that  were  drawn  from  exag- 
gerating the  somewhat  partial  principles  of  his  philos- 
ophy. It  was  on  these  conclusions  that  they  en- 
deavored to  ground  their  doctrines  of  invincible 
necessity,  and  stern  materialism,  thereby  tending  to 
confound  moral  distinctions,  and  to  make  God  and 
nature  synonymous.  And  it  is  just  as  indisputable  that 
through  them  descended  to  the  educated  classes  in 
general,  the  disposition  to  look  with  indifference  on 
everything  supernatural,  so  fearfully  characteristic  of 
the  period  referred  to.  The  Israelites  heard  con- 
flicting accounts  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  being 
disposed  to  believe  the  evil  report  which  suited  their 
indolence  and  carnality,  they  said,  "Let  us  make  a 
captain,  and  let  us  return  into  Egypt."  And  mul- 
titudes who  are  more  prone  to  cleave  to  earth  than 
rise  to  heaven,  seeing  in  the  progress  of  philosophic 
speculation  the  tendency  to  materialize  everything,  or 
to  wrap  in  perplexity  the  supersensual,  are  disposed 
to  leave  religion  to  priests,  and  virtually  say,  "  Let 
us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrovf  we  die." 

In  many  of  our  works  of  science,  and  in  much 
of  our  common  literature,  the  evil  influence  of 
an     extreme     sensationalism     has     been    manifested. 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  367 

Secondary  causes  are  rested  in,  while  an  intelligent 
First  Cause  is  seldom  or  never  adverted  to.  Provi- 
dence is  either  denied,  thrust  away  into  a  general 
superintendence,  or  habitually  passed  over  as  a 
worn-out  fiction.  And  nature  is  brought  in  to 
control  and  account  for  everything,  as  if,  indepen- 
dent of  nature,  there  were  no  God.  Priestley  has 
been  instanced  as  an  example  of  the  influence  of  a 
sensational  philosophy  on  religious  opinions.  He 
was  an  avowed  materialist ;  and,  though  he  did  not 
carry  his  materialism  so  far  as  to  overturn  the  prin- 
ciples of  natural  religion,  his  theology  was  unstable 
as  water,  having  little  or  nothing  in  it  peculiarly 
Christian,  and  being  powerless  for  the  promotion  of 
spiritual  life.  This  influence  has  been  felt,  and 
acknowledged,  on  the  Unitarianism  which,  since  his 
time,  has  existed  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic ;  for  it 
is  undeniable  that  it  has  been  losing  whatever  spirit- 
uality it  possessed,  and  been  gravitating  more  and 
more  towards  simple  Deism.  There  exist  an  "  Old 
School"  and  a  "  New  School,"  as  they  are  called ;  and 
while  the  latter  is,  in  a  great  measure,  the  effect  of 
German  idealism,  the  former  represents  the  influence 
of  the  old  sensationalism.  "  It  is  connected,"  says 
Mr.  Theodore  Parker,  "with  a  philosophy  poor  and 
sensual,  the  same  in  its  basis  with  that  which  gave 
birth  to  the  selfish  system  of  Paley,  the  scepticism  of 
Hume,  the  materialism  of  Hobbes,  the  denial  of  the 
French  deists."^  This,  though  the  testimony  of  one 
who  has  passed  over  to  the  "  School  of  Progress,"  is 

'  Parker's  Discourse,  p.  355. 


368  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY, 

true.  In  short,  the  influence  of  a  developed  sensational 
philosophy,  when  brought  to  bear  on  religion,  has  ever 
been  to  denude  it  of  its  mysteries,  quench  its  spirit, 
reduce  it  to  a  system  of  material  formalism,  if  not  to 
deny  it  both  in  substance  and  name.  Mr.  Morell  thus 
briefly  marks  the  progressive  stages  :  "  The  first  effect 
is  to  weaken  our  perception  of  the  Divine  personality  ; 
this,  in  the  second  place,  makes  itself  apparent  by 
overturning  the  doctrine  of  a  particular  providence ; 
next,  in  order  to  remove  the  Divine  working  further 
away  from  the  world,  secondary  causes  are  adduced  to 
explain,  not  only  all  the  phenomena  of  nature,  but 
also  the  direction  of  human  life ;  and  then,  lastly,  the 
process  advancing  one  step  further,  it  begins  to  be 
an  object  of  speculation  and  of  doubt  whether  there 
be  a  distinct  personality  in  the  Deity  or  not ;  until, 
at  length,  the  conception  of  God  is  entirely  blended 
with  that  of  the  order  and  unity  of  nature."  ^ 

It  is  to  the  Continent,  however,  and  especially  to 
France,  that  we  must  look  for  the  full  and  broad 
effects  of  an  extreme  sensational  philosophy.  Con- 
dillac  was  the  great  apostle  of  the  sensual  philosophy 
of  the  Continent.  He  flourished  about  the  same 
time  as  Hume,  but  his  influence  was  much  greater. 
A  professed  disciple  of  Locke,  whose  essay  on  the 
"  Human  Understanding  "  was  warmly  received  in 
France,  he,  in  the  course  of  his  speculations,  de- 
parted widely  from  him.  The  English  philosopher, 
while  laying  great  stress  on  the  sensuous  origin  of 
our   knowledge,  recognized   two    sources — sense   and 

'  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  p-  584. 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  369 

reflection.  The  French  metaphysician  obliterated  the* 
distinction,  and  resolved  reflection  and  all  our  mental 
processes  into  sensation.  As  a  philosophy  of  sensa- 
tionalism, that  of  Condillac  was  complete  ;  and  it 
would  have  roused  the  indignation  of  the  illustrious 
Englishman,  could  he  have  heard  his  name  associated 
with  it,  as  has  often  been  done  on  the  Continent.  "  In 
truth,"  as  Mr.  Lewes  remarks,  "  when  you  see  Locke's 
name  mentioned  by  the  French  writers  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  you  may  generally  read  Hobbes ;  for 
they  had  retrograded  to  Hobbes,  imagining  they  had 
developed  Locke."  ^  The  results  which  followed,  in 
reference  to  religion,  were  fearful.  The  amiable 
philosopher,  spending  his  time  noiselessly  in  his 
study,  was  sending  forth  speculations,  involving 
genus  which  afterwards  ripened  into  absolute  atheism 
and  social  convulsions.  A  host  of  popular  writers 
arose  who,  pushing  his  philosophy  to  the  utmost 
extreme,  founded  upon  it  an  ethical  system  of  the 
most  undisguised  selfishness,  and  which  substituted 
physical,  educational,  and  political  improvement,  for 
the  duties  and  sanctions  of  religion.  France,  at  this 
period,  was  renowned  for  her  brilliant  writers,  her 
literary  society,  and  men  of  scientific  research.  But 
within  these  circles,  everything  spiritual  was  paralyzed 
under  the  reigning  influence  of  sensationalism ;  and 
an  infidelity,  sensual,  flippant,  and  daringly  impious, 
ran  riot  and  prevailed.  Scientific  research  was  sternly 
restricted  to  the  material  objects  and  mechanical 
forces   of   nature  ;    and,    if    the   philosopher    looked 

'  Lewes'  Biographical  History  of  Pliilosopliy,  vol.  iv.,  p.  59. 

24 


370  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

•beyond  these,  it  was  up  to  a  vacant  heaven  in  wliich, 
he  complacently  said,  there  is  no  God.  The  moralist 
viewed  man  as  a  being  wholly  material,  all  whose 
mental  powers  and  processes  were  but  manifested 
sensations,  whose  moral  law  was  self-interest,  and  to 
whom  the  doctrines  of  responsibilty,  a  future  life,  and 
a  living  Personal  God,  were  the  dreams,  pleasing  or 
perplexing,  of  an  unphilosophic  age.  The  school  of 
Voltaire,  which  completed  its  cycle  of  impieties  by 
ridding  men's  minds  of  the  idea  of  God, — uttering  as 
its  watch-word,  in  reference  to  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,  "  Crush  the  wretch  ;"  proclaiming  death  to  be 
an  eternal  sleep,  and  the  present  scene  the  whole  of 
man, — ^was  just  an  embodiment  of  the  irreligious  in- 
fluences of  the  reigning  philosophy.  Diderot  and 
others  of  the  Encyclopaedists  were  pupils  and  ad- 
mirers of  Condillac.  And  the  famous  atheistical 
book,  "  Systeme  de  la  Nature,"  a  work  of  which  Lord 
Brougham  says,  "  that  words  skilfully  substituted  for 
ideas,  and  assumptions  for  proofs,  are  made  to  pass 
current,  not  only  for  arguments  against  existing 
beliefs,  but  for  a  new  system  planted  in  their  stead,"  ^ 
was  the  matured  fruit  of  the  French  sensational 
philosophy.  And  what  was  the  influence  of  that 
philosophy  on  the  people  at  large  ?  They  might 
never  have  sat  at  the  feet  of  Condillac,  or  of  any  of 
the  chiefs  of  the  metaphysical  schools,  but,  as  has 
been  remarked,  "  they  had  no  difficulty  in  laying  hold 
of  what  we  may  term  the  formulas  of  that  philosophy 
— formulas  which  came  before  them  in  very  intelligible 

'  Brougham's  Introductory  Discourse,  p.  172. 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  371 

propositions,  declarative  of  complete  materialism, 
together  with  an  implied  denial  both  of  the  doctrine 
of  man's  immortality,  and  the  existence  of  a  God.'" 
The  inmost  spirit  of  that  philosophy  was  atheistical, 
and  it  was  expressed  in  that  bold  course  of  anarchy 
and  impiety  which  has  been  too  well  designated  the 
reign  of  terror. 

The  extreme  scepticism  of  Hume,  and  the  old 
French  atheistical  philosophy,  may  receive  little  or  no 
countenance  in  this  age  of  reviving  earnestness,  but 
we  have  inherited  something  of  their  spirit.  Reid 
in  Scotland,  and  Kant  on  the  Continent,  may  have 
been  instrumental  in  rolling  back  the  tide,  but  the 
destructive  eifects  of  it  are  yet  visible  on  the  land. 
That  positive  hostility  to  a  pure  spiritual  religion,  or 
that  contemptuous  disregard  of  it,  so  wofuUy  charac 
teristic  of  some  modern  works  of  science ;  that  strict 
care  to  guard  metaphysical  speculations  and  physical 
researches  from  the  idea  of  a  superintending  provi- 
dence ;  that  exclusive  attention  to  mere  secondary 
causes,  to  the  extrusion  of  the  great  First  Cause ;  that 
cold  formal  air  of  respect  shown  by  much  of  our 
literature  to  religious  truth,  and  the  manifest  tendency 
to  look  with  indiflerence  on  all  religions  as  very  much 
alike ; — the  materialism,  indifferentism,  and  formalism 
of  the  age,  are  the  protracted  influences  of  a  waning 
sensationalism  acting  on  the  minds  of  men  that  are 
prone  to  live  without  God  in  the  world. 

The  influence  of  an  extreme  Ideal  Philosophy^  in 
'  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  i .  p.  22. 


372  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

producing  religious  scepticism,  lias  been  not  less  pow- 
erful  tlian   an    extreme  sensationalism.     The    former 
having  a  tendency  to  run  into  pantheism,  as  the  latter 
to   run  into   materialism  and   atheism.     We  look   to 
France,  at  the  end  of  last  century,  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  one ;  and  to  Germany  in  more  recent  times, 
for  the  full  development  of  the  other.     The  speculative 
philosophy   of  Germany  differs  widely  from   that  of 
our  own  country ;  and,  as  the  mind  of  a  nation  is  very 
much  reflected  in  its  philosophy,  this  difference  arises 
out   of  the    different    mental   habitudes    of  the   two 
peoples.     The   English    mind  is    eminently  practical, 
and    deals   with    palpable   facts;    it    respects    moral 
evidence,  experience,  and  testimony;  and  from  these 
makes  its  way  to  the  higher  regions  of  abstract  truth. 
Hence   the   clear   common   sense   of  our  philosophy, 
and  the  absence  of  a  vague  transcendentalism  in  our 
theology.     The  German  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
imaginative  and  fond  of  speculation,  intolerant  of  the 
evidence   of    palpable    realities,    and,    from   abstract 
conception,  argues   its   way  to   a  system  of  science. 
Hence  the  extreme  idealism  of  its  philosophy,    and 
the  vague  subtle  speculations  which,  with  much  that 
is   precious,    float   in    its   theology.     Our   philosophy 
aims  chiefly  at  analyzing  the  powers  and  faculties  of 
the  human  mind,  and  thus  reaches  man's  moral  and 
intellectual  nature;  and  there  finds,  as   in   the   phe- 
nomena   of  the  material    universe,  evidences  of  the 
existence,  providence,   and  character   of    God.     The 
German    philosophy,    on    the    contrary,  busies  itself 
with   those  great  problems  of  existence  which  were 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  373 

discussed  again  and  again  in  tile  ancient  scliools,  and 
attempts  to  solve  ttie  questions  relating  to  the  being 
and  nature  of  God,  the  universe,  and  the  moral  agency 
of  man.  Philosophy,  in  our  country,  is  not  such  an 
engrossing  and  exclusive  object  of  pursuit,  and  con- 
sequently does  not  exert  such  an  influence  on  our 
religious  beliefs.  There  might  be  a  false  philosophy 
in  our  colleges,  and  yet  a  true  theology  might  retain 
a  strong  hold  on  the  hearts  of  our  people.  But,  in 
Germany,  philosophy  occupies  a  large  place,  and 
sways  powerfully  the  minds  of  the  learned,  and  so 
close  in  hand  does  it  go  with  theology  that  the  two 
have  almost  become  identified.  The  idealism  which 
characterizes  its  metaphysical  disquisitions,  charac- 
terizes also  its  religious  speculations. 

The  German  Ideal  Philosophy  dates  from  the 
time  of  Leibnitz.  He  was  an  opponent  of  Locke,  and 
an  independent,  not  a  slavish  disciple  of  Descartes. 
"The  comprehensive  and  original  genius  of  Leibnitz," 
remarks  Sir.  W.  Hamilton,  "itself  the  ideal  abstract 
of  the  Teutonic  character,  had  reacted  powerfully  on 
the  minds  of  his  countrymen  ;  and  Rationalism^  (more 
properly  Intelledualism^)  has,  from  his  time,  alwa,ys 
remained  the  favorite  philosophy  of  the  Germans. 
On  the  principle  of  this  doctrine,  it  is  in  Reason 
alone  that  truth  and  reality  are  to  be  found.  "^  Leibnitz 
placed  himself  in  antagonism  to  Locke,  by  main- 
taining the  Platonic  dogma  that  the  soul  originally 
contains  the  principles  of  several  notions  and  doctrines 
which  experience  affords  only  the  occasions  of  awak- 

'  Discvissions  on  Philosophy  and  Literature,  p.  4. 


374  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

ening.  And  it  is  in  this  view  of  the  mind  possessing 
innate  ideas,  independent  of  experience,  and  by  its 
necessary  laws  arriving  at  necessary  truths,  that  we 
have  the  germs, of  that  philosophical  rationalism  which, 
when  fully  developed,  bore  such  bitter  fruits  in  the- 
ology; just  as  in  the  sensationalist  principle  of 
founding  all  our  knowledge  on  experience,  we  have 
the  seed  that  ripened  into  the  complete  scepticism  of 
Hume,  and  furnished  food  to  the  atheistical  school  ol" 
France,  The  one,  attaching  an  exclusive  importance 
to  everything  within  man,  led  the  way  to  the  finding 
of  all  knowledge  and  life  in  the  depth  of  the  mind ; 
as  the  other,  attaching  itself  to  what  lay  without,  was 
the  occasion  of  sinking  the  spiritual  in  the  material. 
The  philosophic  thoughts  of  Leibnitz  floated  loosely 
and  beautifully  on  the  stream ;  Wolf,  one  of  his 
professed  disciples,  gathered  them  up  and  formed 
them  into  a  rigid  system.  With  him  may  be  said  to 
have  begun  the  modern  method  of  carrying  philosophy 
into  the  domain  of  religion,  of  applying  methods  of 
proof  to  the  Christian  doctrines  which  are  applicable 
only  to  objects  of  human  science,  and  of  arraigning, 
before  a  stern  logic,  divine  revelations  and  historical 
testimony.  In  the  wake  of  this  school  of  philosophy, 
arose  the  great  chief,  Immanuel  Kant,  who  greatly 
modified  it.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  subjective  ten- 
dencies. It  'is  a  primary  principle  of  his  philosophy 
that  the  element  of  our  knowledge  coming  from 
without,  is  merely  phenomenal, — having  no  reality  or 
shape  till  it  is  subjected  to  the  laws  of  the  under- 
standing.    The  metaphysicians  of  this  school,  says  Dr 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  375 

Chalmers,  will  tell  us  "  that  no  evidence  for  a  God  is 
to  be  found  in  the  experimental  argument  afforded 
by  external  and  visible  nature,  not  at  least  till  the 
glorious  spectacle  of  nature,  teeming  to  common  eyes 
with  all  the  indices  of  design  and  order,  shall  somehow 
have  been  transformed  and  sublimated  into  their  own 
speculations."  Kant  led  his  followers  to  a  dizzy 
height  far  up  in  the  regions  of  air,  but  there  they  did 
not  stop.  The  climax  was  reached  by  Hegel,  in  whom 
idealism  has  become  absolute,  and  from  him  have 
been  obtained  those  weapons  which,  in  the  depart- 
ment of  theology,  have  been  wielded  on  the  side  of  a 
complete  rationalism. 

Now,  one  thing  is  especially  observable,  amid  all 
the  bewildering  and  shifting  speculations  of  the  mod- 
ern German  School,  namely,  that  the  human  mind 
is  made  the  determinator  of  religious  truth,  and  that 
no  weight  is  given  to  the  external  facts  and  evidences 
of  revelation  except  in  so  far  as  they  harmonize  with 
the  inward  sentiments  and  conceptions.  The  religious 
creed  of  our  idealists  is  not  historical,  a  matter  derived 
from  the  past,  a  light  coming  from  without ;  but  it  is 
metaphysical  and  personal,  wrought  out  of  the  human 
consciousness,  and  altogether  independent  of  outward 
testimony.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  extreme  tran- 
scendental philosophy,  to  begin  with  the  general  and 
abstract  notion  of  being ;  and,  by  a  dialectic  process 
to  construct  a  universe,  a  God,  and  a  religion.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  transcendentalist  treats  alike  contemp- 
tuously our  writers  on  the  evidences  of  natural  and 
revealed  religion,  and  our  experimental  philosophers 


376  SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHy. 

— a  Bacon ^  a  Newton,  and  a  Herschell.  The  whole 
objective  element  of  Christianity,  as  a  religion  of 
historical  facts,  has  no  place  in  Hegelianism.  Its 
place  is  usurped  by  the  a  'priori  conceptions  of  the 
human  mind.  Hegel,  as  we  have  seen,  has  a  Christ- 
ology,  but  it  is  the  creation  of  his  own  philosophy. 
He  deduces,  by  a  process  of  logical  argumentation,  a 
God  and  the  essential  doctrines  of  evangelism ;  but, 
with  him,  God  has  no  personality,  except  in  the 
human  consciousness ;  and  the  evangelic  doctrines 
are  not  historical,  inspired  facts,  but  are  included  in 
the  sweep  of  a  philosophical  rationalism. 

The  matured  influence  of  this  philosophy,  in  the 
department  of  theology,  is  seen  in  the  writings  of 
Strauss.  He  is  an  avowed  representative  of  the  ex- 
treme Hegelian  party,  and  the  Leben  Jesu  is  the  fruit 
of  absolute  idealism.  His  attack  on  the  genuineness 
of  the  Gospels,  his  denial  of  an  historical  truth  to  the 
New  Testament,  and  his  attempt  to  resolve  all  its 
wondrous  and  well-authenticated  facts  into  mytho- 
logical representations  of  great  spiritual  ideas,  have 
proceeded  from  his  philosophical  principles.  The 
fundamental  idea  of  the  school  is,  that  religious  truth 
is  the  development  of  men's  thoughts  and  intuitions, 
and  not  a  revelation  from  without,  having  a  firm  foot- 
ing in  well-attested  history.  Accordingly,  the  doc- 
trines of  the  fall,  the  trinity,  the  incarnation,  and  the 
atonement  are  held  not  to  be  historically  true,  but  to 
have  been  framed  by  a  develojDing  process  of  the  mind. 
The  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  Strauss  declares,  is  not  an 
individual,  but  an  idea.     It  is  in  vain  that  you  point 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  377 

such  a  man  to  that  vast  and  clear  amount  of  evidence 
for  Christianity  as  a  religion  of  facts  and  a  revelation 
from   Heaven,    derived  from   unquestionable   historic 
testimony,  from   a  keen   searching   criticism,  from   a 
wide  experience,  and  from  the  character  of  Christ, — a 
character  unrivalled  in  the  annals  of  the  world  for  the 
perfect  harmony  of  its  intellectual  and  moral  elements. 
He   tells  you,  that   the   question   with   him   and   his 
school,  is  one,  not  of  biblical  interpretation  or  historic- 
al testimony,  but  of  philosophical  possibility.     "First 
principles,"  he  says,  "must  be  settled  on  philosophical 
and  dogmatic  grounds,  before  the  ijaterpretation  of  the 
Scriptures  can   take   effect."^     A  first  principle,  with 
him,  is,  the  impossibility  of  miracles ;    and  that  arises 
naturally  out  of  his  philosophical  creed.     His  philoso- 
phy allows  not  the  interposal  of  a  living  personal  God 
in  the  government  of  the  world,  or  in  effecting  the 
redemption  of  men.     The  chain  of  endless  causation,  it 
says,  can   never   be  broken.     All  things,  both  in  the 
physical  and  moral  worlds,  fall  under  the  same  law  of 
necessary  development;    and,  in   harmony   with    this 
principle,  Christianity  must  be  explained. 

Isaac  Taylor  has  somewhere  said,  that  every  parti- 
cle of  the  German  infidelity  disappears  when  once  it 
is  proved  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead.  But  the 
idealist,  intrenched  behind  his  speculative  philosophy, 
is  proof  against  this  evidence.  He  does,  what  the 
French  infidels  did  in  another  way,  supersedes  the 
question  of  historical   testimony,  by  raising   abstract 

'  See  Strauss,  Hegel,  and  their  Opinions.     By  Dr.  Beard. 


378  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

questions.  We  may  speak  of  the  folly  of  this  princi- 
ple, and  show  how,  if  applied  to  history  in  general,  it 
would  nullify  its  facts,  and  reduce  its  marvels  to  mere 
mental  conceptions.  But  the  rationalist,  armed  with 
his  Hegelian  weapons,  replies.  Such  is  my  philosophy, 
and  my  philosophy  is  my  theology.  And  that  theology, 
as  Germany  too  plainly  testifies,  has  left  the  world 
without  a  personal  God,  and  man  without  moral  free- 
dom and  immortality.  "A  life  beyond  the  grave," 
says  Strauss,  "is  the  last  enemy  which  speculative 
criticism  has  to  oppose,  and,  if  possible,  to  vanquish," 
"Ask  the  extreme  idealists  of  the  present  day,"  re- 
marks Mr.  Morell,  "  and  they  will  tell  you  that  God 
is  one  with  the  universe  itself  The  glorious  concep- 
tion of  the  great  Jehovah,  which  we  derive  from  the 
display  of  His  wisdom,  power,  and  love,  in  the  creation 
without,  the  constitution  of  our  minds  within,  and 
the  intuition  of  our  rational  and  moral  nature,  soon 
sinks  down  into  a  vague  personification  of  the  human 
consciousness.  The  final  result  of  such  a  theology 
is,  that  the  divine  is  dragged  down  to  a  level  with  the 
human,  instead  of  the  divine  being  raised  up  (as  it 
is  by  Christianity)  to  the  human.  Thus,  then,  the 
extremes  of  sensationalism  and  idealism  at  length 
meet.  The  one  says  that  God  is  the  universe,  the 
other  that  the  universe  is  God.  Diderot  and  Strauss 
can  here  shake  hands,  and  alike  rejoice  in  the  impious 
purpose  of  sinking  the  personality  of  the  Deity  into 
an  abstraction,  which  the  holy  cannot  love,  and  which 
the  wicked  need  not  fear.  Such  is  the  extreme  of 
idealism   in   its  influence  upon  Christian  theology,  an 


SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY.  379 

extreme  which  contravenes  and  destroys  all  the  good 
which  at  first  it  promised  to  effect."^ 

The  influence  of  these  idealistic  speculations  is 
telling,  in  some  quarters,  on  the  religious  literature 
of  our  own  country.  Amid  much  really  valuable  in 
the  department  of  theology  which  we  have  imported 
from  Germany,  has  come  the  evil  genius  of  its  philo- 
sophic spirit.  The  writings  of  Coleridge,  Carlyle,  and 
others,  who  have  drunk  deep  at  the  German  originals, 
have  done  much  to  diffuse  among  us  the  German 
philosophy.  And  though  idealism  in  its  extreme 
manifestations,  has  made  but  little  impression  on  the 
the  sturdy  and  sound  English  intellect,  yet  we  have 
not  wholly  escaped  the  infection ;  and,  judging  from 
some  recent  productions  of  the  press,  are  not  likely 
to  get  rid  of  it  very  soon.  A  want  of  real  vitality  and 
earnestness  in  our  religious  community,  (to  the  un- 
grateful overlooking,  we  think,  of  the  vast  amount  of 
living  godliness  among  us,)  has  been  felt,  and  pro- 
claimed to  be  the  great  want  of  the  age.  This  has 
been  ascribed,  in  a  great  degree,  by  some,  to  the  want 
of  a  spiritual  philosophy  in  our  schools.  And,  in 
order  to  supply  this  want,  and  infuse  new  life  into 
our  cold  orthodoxy,  certain  of  our  writers  would  bring 
a  portion  of  the  German  idealism  to  breathe  upon 
our  prostrate  lifeless  creeds,  shake  them,  make  them 
stand  up  and  live.  Accordingly,  a  religious  philoso- 
phy, or  a  philosophical  religion,  has,  for  some  time 
back,  been  quietly  making  its  way  among  us ;  and  we 

*  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  611. 


380  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

are  only  now  becoming  awake  to  the  mischievous 
influence  it  is  likely  to  have  on  an  historical  Chris- 
tianity. 

Carlyle,  and  the  men  of  his  school  seem  to  have 
a  greater  love  for  earnestness  than  for  plain  Gospel 
truths.  They  are  disposed  to  follow  the  philosophers 
of  Germany  in  making  religion  a  creation  from 
within,' — not  a  matter  received  from  without;  and 
to  be  in  danger  of  including  among  the  shams 
they  cry  out  against,  the  experimental  and  historical 
evidences  of  Christianity.  Emerson,  after  the  Ger- 
man fashion,  and  doubtless  owing  to  German  influ- 
ence, finds  everything  within  man,  and  makes 
religion  merely  an  efi'ect  of  mental  action.  "  We 
run,"  says  he,  "  all  our  vessels  into  one  mould.  Our 
colossal  theologies  of  Judaism,  Christism,  Buddhism, 
Mahometism,  are  the  necessary  and  structural  action 
of  the  human  mind."^  Of  course,  as  man  has  the 
fountain  of  all  good  in  himself,  his  mind  is  the 
determinator  of  what  is  true  in  everything  that 
comes  to  him  from  without.  Theodore  Parker,  who 
has  been  so  well  taught  by  Strauss  and  De  Wette, 
would  have  men  to  use  the  Bible  as  they  use  a  well- 
filled  table, — take  what  suits  their  palate.  Francis 
William  Newman,  who  has  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 
same  teachers,  has  come  to  look  upon  the  study  of  the 
Bible  and  its  evidences  "  as  the  greatest  religious  evil 
of  England;"^  and  he  "deliberately,  before  God  his 
man,  protests   against  the  attempt  to  make  it  a  law 

*  Emerson's  Rei^resentative  Men,  p.  2. 
'  Phases  of  Faith,  p.  205. 


SPECULATIVE   PHILOSOPHY.  381 

to  men's  understanding,  conscience,  or  soul."^  Mr. 
Mackay,  in  his  recent  contributions  to  our  rationalistic 
theology,  —  "  The  Progress  of  the  Intellect,"' — ^has 
taken,  from  the  German  metaphysical  speculations, 
the  development  theory;  and,  with  little  regard  to 
scriptural  statements,  and  with  an  unfair  use  of 
historical  testimony,  has  applied  it  so  as  to  account 
for  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  without  leaving  any 
authority  to  the  Bible  itself  It  is  with  much 
reluctance,  we  add,  that  Mr.  MoreU,  who,  in  his  first 
valuable  work,  pointed  out  and  denounced  the  influ- 
ences of  an  extreme  idealism,  has,  notwithstanding 
the  friendly  warning  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  since  shown 
a  strong  tendency  to  construct,  somewhat  after  the 
German  mode,  a  religion  from  within,  and  to  at- 
tach comparatively  little  importance  to  that  which 
comes  independently  from  without.  It  is  but  justice 
to  say,  as  we  have  formerly  said,  that  there  is  a  wide 
difference  between  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Morell  and  some 
of  the  rationalistic  writers  adverted  to.  He  is  by  no 
means  eager,  we  are  persuaded,  however  his  princi- 
ples may  tend  in  that  direction,  to  subvert  the 
great  Christian  truths.  Nevertheless,  his  "  Philos- 
ophy of  Religion"  is  the  product  of  the  German 
religious  philosophy.  And,  in  contending  "most 
earnestly  for  this  position  —  that  the  simplicity  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ  is  to  be  looked  for,  not  in  our 
logical  systems  of  doctrine,  but  in  the  clear  elimina- 
tions from  all  systems,  or  rather  from  the  religious 
intuitions  of  all  good  men,  of  the  vital  and  essential 
'  The  Soul;  her  Sorrows  and  Aspirations,  p.  199. 


6qZ  speculative  philosophy. 

elements  of  Christian  faith  and  love,  hope  and  joy,''' 
— he  shows  his  strong  subjectivity,  and  a  tendency 
to  number  among  logical  forms  what  the  Christian 
world  has  ever  regarded  as  the  essence  of  Christian 
doctrine. 

Christianity,  as  we  simple  folks  have  imagined,  is 
a  fixed  and  not  a  floating  thing— having  an  objective 
and  authoritative  standard  in  the  Scriptures,  being 
supported  by  a  powerful  force  of  external  and  inter- 
nal evidence;  the  truths  of  which  enter  into  the 
understanding,  and  descend  into  the  heart,  quicken 
and  purify  all  its  sensibilities,  and  manifest  their 
lovely  fruits  in  the  conversation  and  life.  But, 
according  to  our  idealist  writers,  revelation  is  spon- 
taneous and  intuitional,  a  process  of  the  mind  gazing 
intuitively  upon  eternal  verities,  a  thing  altogether 
subjective;  and  no  other  authority  is  left  to  the 
Scriptures  than  in  so  far  as  they  harmonize  with 
the  mind's  intuitions.  "No  one,"  says  an  able  re- 
viewer, "can  have  read  books  of  this  class — from 
those  of  Mr.  Carlyle  downwards — without  marking 
the  special  aversion  of  this  whole  school  of  authors 
to  what  are  called  the  '  Evidences.'  By  this  term 
they  mean  the  external  and  critical  evidence  which 
determines  the  historical  truthfulness  and  the  just  inter- 
pretation of  the  sacred  writings.  There  is  no  end  to  the 
repugnance  evinced  by  them  towards  this  department 
of  investigation."^ 

In  all  this,  we  see  the  influence  of  the  modern  trans- 

'  Morell's  Philosophy  of  Religion,  preface,  p.  sxii. 
'  British  Quarterly,  No.  xix.,  p.  167. 


SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY.  383 

i 

cendental  philosophy,  a  philosophy  subtle,  daring, 
proud, — ^intolerant  of  the  world  of  realities  lying 
without,  and  which  assumes  to  weave,  by  its  own 
dialectics,  all  truth  from  the  mind  within.  Let  us 
hail,  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  come,  any  goodly 
element  of  vitality  that  would  quicken  the  good 
things  which  remain  and  are  ready  to  die.  But  let 
us  be  jealous  of  every  system,  whatever  be  its  pre- 
tensions, that  would  transmute  a  Christianity  founded 
in  facts,  into  a  matter  of  the  mind's  own  fashioning ; 
and  that  would  dismantle  the  towers  and  bulwarks 
of  an  historical  faith  as  if  they  were  only  fit  for  a 
bygone  age.  "  Christianity  comes  to  our  times  as 
the  survivor  of  all  systems,  and  after  confronting,  in 
turn,  every  imaginable  form  of  error,  each  of  which 
has  gone  to  its  almost  forgotten  place  in  history — 
itself  alone  lives''^ — lives,  not  as  a  creature  of  the 
mind's  development, — a  thing  of  mere  sentiment  or 
intuition,  but  lives  with  its  firm  footing  in  history, 
and  its  powerful  hold  of  men's  hearts. 

Faith  and  philosophy  are  not  enemies  by  nature. 
They  are  both  children  of  the  light  and  of  the  day, 
and  were  designed  to  walk  hand  in  hand  through  the 
world.  But,  "  in  pride,  in  reasoning  pride,  our  error 
lies."  Men  have  often  put  asunder  what  God  hath 
joined  together.  Speculation  has  been  arrayed  against 
the  power  of  fact.  Man's  mind,  vainly  puffed  up,  has 
risen  against  God's  mind.  Philosophy,  having  either 
become  sensual  or  vaguely  transcendental,  has  been 
changed    into    that   which   is   devilish   and   spurious, 

'  Taylor's  Spiritual  Christianity,  p.  6. 


384  SPECULATIVE    PHILOSOPHY. 

and  has  then  fought  against  the  truth  of  God.  But 
"  truth  is  strong  next  to  the  Almighty,"  and  will 
prevail.  Meanwhile,  we  note,  that  speculative  philo- 
sophy, whether  in  the  form  of  an  extreme  sensation- 
alism, or  of  an  extreme  idealism,  has,  as  a  subordinate 
cause,  been  productive  of  no  small  amount  of  infi- 
delity. Paul's  exhortation  is  still  needed, — "Beware 
lest  any  man  make  plunder  of  you,  through  philosophy 
and  vain  deceit."  "  Which  words,"  says  Thomas 
Fuller,  "  seriously  considered,  neither  express  nor 
imply  any  prohibition  of  true  philosophy,  but  rather 
tacitly  commend  it.  Thus,  when  our  Saviour  saith, 
'  Beware  of  false  prophets,'  by  way  of  opposition,  he 
inviteth  them  to  believe  and  respect  such  as  are  true 
ones."  ^ 

*  Fuller's  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of  Cambridge. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SOCIAL     DISAFFECTION. 

Social  agitation  not  always  to  be  deprecated — It  is  often  a  mark  of 
rigK^  progress — Deep  social  discontent  has,  nevertheless,  often 
proved  favorable  to  infidelity — Great  French  Revolution — Social 
disabilities  of  the  working  classes — Existing  social  discontent,  the 
stronghold  of  infidel  socialism — Desirableness  of  severing  the 
socialist  question  from  irreligious  elements — Injurious  influence  of 
the  prevailing  theories :  they  make  a  religion  of  political  liberty 
— Attempt  to  identify  them  with  Christianity  itself — Their  pan- 
theistic tendency^Admiration  of  political  principles  of  infidels 
seductive  in  times  of  social  agitation — Infidelity  employed  as  an 
organ  of  political  convulsion. 

Social  agitation  is  inevitable  in  a  community  that  is 
suffered  to  develop  its  energies,  and  is,  to  some  ex- 
tent, salutary  and  beneficial.  It  often  marks  the  pro- 
gress of  a  state  from  barbarism  to  civilization,  from 
depotism  to  civil  and  religious  liberty.  The  grum- 
bling and  the  upheaving  are  not  unfrequently  symp- 
toms of  advancement  from  a  wrong  to  a  right  position. 
There  are  many  things  we  like  not  the  less,  because 
they  are  subject  now  and  then  to  a  shaking,  and  give 
forth  a  growl.  Protestantism,  with  its  conflicting 
sects  and  healthy  rivalries,  is  infinitely  preferable  to 
Romanism  with  its  leaden  uniformity.  Britain,  with 
its  free  constitution,  its  limited  monarchy,  and  right  of 
public  discussion,  is  a  happier  and  safer  government 

than  Russia  under  the  iron  hand  of  absolutism.     The 

25 


386  SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION. 

storm  that  rends  the  heavens  and  shakes  the  founda- 
tions of  the  earth,  may  be  attended  with  many  disas- 
ters ;  but  if  it  be  instrumental  in  purging  the  atmos- 
phere, and  rendering  it  salubrious,  it  is  much  more 
desirable  than  the  dead  noxious  calm  in  which  animal 
and  vegetable  life  becomes  oppressed.  Our  sympa- 
thies are  more  with  the  principles  of  a  Sidney  and 
a  Hampden,  than  with  those  of  a  Filmer  and  his 
modern  disciple  who  declared  that  the  people  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  laws  but  to  obey  them.  We 
would  not,  then,  that  the  political  world  were  lulled 
asleep,  and  that  people's  minds  were  drawn  off  from 
discussing  the  affairs  of  government.  For,  whatever 
injurious  influence  may  affect  religion  amid  the  social 
heavings,  it  is  assuredly  noj;  under  the  pall  of  despotism 
that  it  flourishes  in  its  loveliness  and  vigor.  Political 
science  and  religious  truths  are  not  points  of  repul- 
sion, and  a  moderate  attachment  to  the  former  is  not 
necessarily  counteractive  of  the  influence  of  the  latter. 
There  is  no  necessary  connection  between  the  princi- 
ples of  political  freedom  and  infidel  opinions.  It  has 
often  been  remarked  that  the  chief  advocates  of  civil 
liberty  in  the  reigns  of  the  Charleses,  were  the  puri- 
tans— men  of  whom  the  Avorld  was  not  worthy,  some 
of  whom  were  republicans,  and  others  of  them  the 
firm  adherents  of  a  limited  monarchy.  Amid  the 
storms  of  that  period  the  cradle  of  British  freedom 
was  rocked,  and  rocked  too  by  the  saints,  the  excellent 
ones  of  the  earth. 

It  may,  however,  be  safely  maintained,  that  political 
agitation,  when   running  very  high,  has  often    for   a 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  387 

time  proved  detrimental  to  spiritual  Christianity,  and 
advantageous  to  infidelity.  It  is  not  for  us  to  balance 
the  good  and  bad  effects  of  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion, which,  in  its  results,  marked  a  new  era  in  the 
nations  of  Europe.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that 
the  deep  discontent  engendered  at  the  heart  of  French 
society  by  social  wrongs  and  abuses,  rendered  the 
soil  receptive  of  the  infidel  principles  of  the  philo- 
sophers, and  that,  in  the  terrible  upheavings  that  fol- 
lowed, these  principles  were  carried  forth  triumphantly 
like  a  flood.  They  were  at  once  partly  the  cause  and 
partly  the  effect  of  the  social  disorder.  They  set 
fire  to  the  materials  that  had  long  lain  ready  to  be 
kindled,  and  in  the  blaze  they  yelled,  sported,  and 
exulted  like  fiends.  The  enormous  abuses  both  in 
the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  country 
— the  church  richly  endowed,  and  yet  leaving  the 
mass  of  ignorance  and  vice  around  her  to  grow  and 
strengthen ;  the  venality  and  corruption  which  char- 
acterised the  administration  of  justice,  the  unequal 
and  oppressive  taxation  imposed  upon  the  lower  and 
middling  classes,  the  mental  degradation  to  which 
they  were  subjected  in  consequence  of  long-standing 
feudal  distinctions,  the  luxury  and  frivolity  of  the 
court  and  many  of  the  nobles, — these  and  such  like 
abuses  which  had  separated  one  part  of  French  so- 
ciety by  a  great  gulf  from  the  other,  were  the  ele- 
ments which  infidelity  quickened  into  a  convulsion 
and  in  whose  excesses  it  reigned.^  An  ill-taught  and 
oppressed  populace,  overborne  by  a  corrupt  church 
*  See  Brougham  on  French  Rev.  ("  Statesmen  of  the  Time  of  Geo.  III.") 


388  SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION. 

and  a  despotic  government,  lies  open  to  infidel  teach- 
ing when  allied  with  liberal  politics,  and  in  the  agita- 
tion or  revolt  thereby  produced,  infidelity  finds  its 
element.  Political  and  social  harangues  strongly 
interest  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  mankind,  and 
tend,  even  when  containing  no  infidel  mixture,  to 
draw  the  mind  off  from  religious  objects,  unless  they 
meet  with  a  strong  faith  in  eternal  verities  to  coun- 
teract the  evil.  But  when  such  discussions  are  asso- 
ciated with  irreligious  principles,  and  are  brought  to 
bear  on  minds  socially  disaffected  and  at  the  same 
time  indifferent  or  hostile  to  vital  Christianity,  the 
influence  on  behalf  of  infidelity  becomes  powerful 
indeed.  The  poison,  mingled  with  the  water,  flows 
on  as  fast  as  the  water  itself,  and  infects  all  who 
drink  of  it.  "  The  Rights  of  Man "  renders  palatable 
to  many  minds  "  The  Age  of  Reason." 

This  is  very  much  the  case  with  many  of  the  politi- 
cal and  social  theories  afloat  in  our  day,  more  espe- 
cially on  the  Continent.  The  great  problem  in  modern 
politics,  is  the  elevation  of  the  industrial  mind  so 
as  to  secure  the  greatest  good  to  society  in  general. 
Comparatively  few  persons  will  maintain  that  the 
arrangements  of  society  are  as  they  should  and  might 
be.  The  spread  of  intelligence  among  the  working 
classes  has  made  them  sensible  of  the  social  disabili- 
ties under  which,  in  many  parts  of  Europe,  they  have 
been  long  lying.  The  rebound  is  fully  proportionate 
to  the  pressure.  And  the  industrial  interests  rising 
up  from  the  one  extreme  of  depression,  would  ascend 
to  the  other  extreme  of  elevation.     The  servant  brood- 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  389 

ing  over  years  of  neglect  and  harsh  treatment,  would 
now  avenge  himself  by  becoming  lord.  The  truth  is, 
governments,  by  foolishly  continuing  those  restraints 
on  the  popular  mind  in  an  enlightened  age,  which  were 
suited  to  a  past  and  different  state  of  society,  not 
nnfi'equently  suffer  a  penalty  somewhat  similar  to  that 
which  a  landed  proprietor  suffers  in  damming  up  a 
sti'eam.  Arbitrarily  checked  in  its  course,  it  swells,  and 
chafes  against  the  barrier ;  at  length  it  sweeps  all  before 
it,  and  carries  wasting  and  desolation,  where  it  other- 
wise would  have  contributed  to  the  fertility  and  pictur- 
esqueness  of  the  country.  Even  in  our  own  England, 
which  is  the  home  of  freedom  in  Europe,  and  which,  in 
the  language  of  one  of  our  old  poets, 

"  was  sure  designed 


To  be  the  sacred  refuge  of  mankind," — 

the  consequences  of  past  neglect  are  too  manifest. 
There  are  large  classes  among  us  who,  from  regarding 
almost  everything  established  with  blind  reverence, 
have  come  to  look  upon  almost  everything  really 
sacred  with  growing  aversion.  "In  many  cases,"  says 
Dr.  Arnold,  "  the  real  origin  of  a  man's  irreligion  is, 
I  believe,  political.  He  dislikes  the  actual  state  of 
society,  hates  the  church  as  connected  -^th  it,  and, 
in  his  notions,  supporting  its  abuses,  and  then  hates 
Christianity  because  it  is  taught  by  the  church." 

The  problem  to  which  we  have  adverted  is  that 
which  the  several  socialist  schools,  with  their  widely- 
conflicting  theories,  propose  to  solve.  The  possibility 
of  a  great  and  sudden  amelioration  in  the  condition 
of  the  working  classes,  is  the  common  faith  of  them 


390  SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION. 

all.  Politically  and  socially  they  vary,  and  frown  upon 
each  other,  from  St.  Simonianism  with  its  somewhat 
hierarchical  arrangement  of  classes,  to  the  humanist 
theory,  the  latest  form  of  socialism,  with  its  intoler- 
ance of  any  vestige  of  inequality.  But  tested  by  a 
religious  standard,  they  all  bear  the  mark  of  Cain, 
are  vagabonds  on  the  earth,  and  the  last  of  them  is 
worse  than  the  first.  Owenism,  though  it  never  had 
a  strong  hold  on  any  large  portion  of  the  English 
people,  and  for  some  years  has  been  losing  the  hold 
that  it  had,  is  steeped  in  atheism.  It  sees  omnipo- 
tence nowhere  but  in  external  circumstances.  And 
through  this  wretched  system,  appealing  to  existing 
social  disaffection,  not  a  few  are  to  be  found  here  and 
there  in  our  workshops  and  factories,  who  have  been 
led  over  to  the  ranks  of  infidelity.  In  France,  Ger- 
many, and  other  parts  of  the  Continent,  socialism 
has  leavened  the  masses,  and  is  still  rapidly  difiusing 
itself;  and — what  we  wish  especially  to  mark — 
the  poison  of  infidelity  is  almost  everywhere  mixed 
up  with  it.  It  would  seem  that  the  socialist  theories 
of  the  Continent  can  no  more  keep  neutral  in  reference 
to  religion,  than  the  continental  speculative  philoso- 
phies. Indeed,  these  theories  have,  in  some  measure, 
been  the  fruit,  or  formed  a  parcel,  of  the  philosophies. 
Feuerbach,  and  Griin,  who  are  of  the  extreme  left 
Hegelian  party,  are  the  great  teachers  of  humanism — 
a  system  which  finds  everything  in  man,  which  ig- 
nores all  motive  power  but  the  human  will,  and  which 
is  as  intolerant  of  the  existence  of  religion  as  of  private 
property. 


SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION.  391 

There  are  good  men,  in  our  own  country  and 
elsewhere,  who,  being  persuaded  that  socialism  is 
no  temporary  ebullition  of  social  discontent,  but,  as 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  remarks,  "  has  now  become 
irrevocably  one  of  the  leading  elements  in  European 
politics,"  would  seek  to  deal  with  the  questions  in- 
volved in  it  in  a  Christian  manner.  This  we  deem 
praiseworthy.  The  working  classes  have  been  left 
too  much  to  the  will  of  infidel  socialist  teachers,  who 
exaggerate  their  grievances,  lay  upon  evangelical  re- 
ligion the  blame  that  belongs  only  to  its  corruptions, 
and  hold  out  to  them  false  hopes  of  amelioration. 
They  have  grievances  which  must  be  dealt  with. 
And,  convinced  as  we  are  that  existing  social  arrange- 
ments admit  of  much  improvement,  that  the  relation 
between  the  capitalist  and  the  workmen,  the  govern- 
ors and  the  governed,  might  be  more  satisfactory, 
we  would  have  Christian  men  both  in  the  church 
and  in  the  state  to  step  in  and  deal  fairly  with  the 
socialist  question.  We  see  no  necessary  connection 
between  it  and  infidelity.  And,  without  giving  any 
opinion  here  as  to  the  truth  or  justice  involved  in  its 
essential  principles,  we  would  have  it  dissociated  from 
the  irreligious  elements  which  have  been  hitherto  so 
much  mixed  up  with  it,  and  let  it  stand  forth  simply 
as  a  question  of  political  economy.  But,  be  it  the 
system  of  Owen,  or  Fourier,  of  Louis  Blanc,  or  Feuer- 
bach ;  all,  notwithstanding  the  religious  sentimentalism 
that  may  be  found  in  some  of  them,  have  been  of  an 
irreligious  tendency,  and  influential  in  making  democ- 
racies at  once  fierce  and  ungodly. 


392  SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION. 

The  first  thing,  in  the  way  of  injurious  influence, 
that  presents  itself,  on  examining  these  theories,  is 
the  hope  of  happiness  which  they  hold  out,  from 
entirely  remodelling  the  framework  of  society.  Dif- 
fering as  they  do  on  important  points  of  polity,  the 
prophet  of  this  school  ridiculing  the  prophets  of  all 
other  schools  as  fanatics  and  impostors,  they  agree  in 
making  a  religion  of  political  liberty,  and  looking  for 
Paradise  restored  to  a  new  arrangement  of  property 
and  industrial  interests.  The  real  devil  of  the  world, 
in  their  estimation,  is  private  property.  The  de- 
pravity and  wretchedness  existing  among  men  are 
ascribed  to  the  factitious  arrangement  of  society,  and 
the  regeneration  of  the  race  is  to  be  expected  from 
thorough-going  social  changes.  It  is  in  vain  that 
history  tells  of  speculations  and  schemes  of  a  similar 
character  having  been  tried  in  the  past,  having 
aggravated  instead  of  having  mitigated  the  miseries 
which  they  professed  to  cure,  and  having  been  num- 
bered long  ago  among  the  follies  whereby  visionary 
projectors  thought  to  make  a  new  world.  So  long  as 
these  speculations  were  not  theirs,  there  is  room, 
they  imagine,  for  the  trial  of  their  own.  The  world 
must  have  its  golden  age,  and  these  prophets  of  a 
social  regeneration  are  to  be  instrumental  in  exalting 
every  valley,  making  low  every  mountain  and  hill, 
making  the  crooked  straight  and  the  rough  places 
plain.  It  were  really  amusing  to  sit,  as  in  a  panorama, 
and  see  how  one  plan  of  the  world's  reformation  has 
absorbed  man's  attention  for  awhile,  passed  away  as  a 
vain  show,  and  then  given  place  to  another  destined 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  393 

to  share  the  same  fate,  were  the  thought  not  to  arise 
that  these  visionary  projects  have  not  only  left  society 
a  prey  to  numerous  vices  and  miseries,  but  have  in  a 
great  measure  diverted  men's  minds  from  "  heaven's 
easy  unencumbered  plan," — a  plan  which  has  survived 
all  others,  and  which  experience,  as  well  as  the  voice 
of  God,  assures  us  is  the  only  one  fitted  to  make  all 
things  new.  It  is  with  this  evil  influence  that  all  the 
socialist  theories  which  have  lately  played  such  a 
prominent  part  are  fraught.  It  were  well  enough  did 
their  abettors  insist  on  social  reforms  as  necessary  to 
the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  man.  But  to 
bid  men  look  to  these  reforms  as  the  panacea  of  all 
ills,  the  means  of  regenerating  the  race,  and  bringing 
about  a  heaven  on  earth,  is  as  ungodly  as  it  is  vision- 
ary, as  antagonistic  to  the  gospel  of  Christ  as  it  is 
deluding  and  destructive  to  men.  •  Once  persuade  an 
individual  or  any  body  of  individuals  that  all  their 
miseries  originate  in  political  and  social  causes — that 
the  source  of  the  evil  lies  chiefly  or  exclusively  with- 
out, and  is  to  be  removed  by  the  prevalence  of  certain 
modes  of  education  and  civil  government,  and  you 
leave  no  room  whatever  for  the  influence  of  that 
truth  which  coming  from  above  is  above  all.  And 
yet  this  is  the  teaching  to  which  myriads  of  men  in  our 
own  country,  and  more  especially  on  the  Continent, 
have  eagerly  listened  at  the  feet  of  the  apostles  of  social 
regeneration. 

It   has   been   well   said  by   a  respectable   London 
journaV  that  "  the  socialist  principles  are   inevitable 
*  The  Daily  News. 


394  SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION. 

in  any  tliinking  country  which  has  shaken  off  religious 
belief.  If  the  Christian  dispensation  does  not  rise 
as  the  great  and  all-explaining  truth  before  man's 
eyes,  the  philosopher  cannot  be  contented  with  the 
inequality  of  human  conditions,  or  avoid  devising 
material  plans  for  its  removal.  The  more  unformed 
intellect  of  the  poor  will  easily  follow  in  this  path. 
And  happiness  being  considered  a  compound  of  com- 
forts, he  will  infallibly  ask  by  what  right  he  is  ex- 
cluded from  his  share  of  what  the  earth  and  industry 
produce,  when  his  creed*  cannot  enjoin  the  duty  of 
patience  or  point  to  any  present  or  future  compensa- 
tion." The  truth  is,  that  in  all  the  socialist  theories, 
as  in  the  great  expectations  cherished  from  philosoph- 
ical illumination  in  a  preceding  age,  three  very 
palpable  facts  are  forgotten  or  denied.  The  first  is, 
that  a  personal  change  of  heart,  and  not  a  mere  social 
or  political  amelioration,  is  the  indispensable  con- 
dition- of  all  real  and  lasting  improvement.  National 
can  only  be  the  effect  of  individual  regeneration.  It 
is  out  of  the  heart,  as  the  Great  Teacher  taught,  that 
proceed  the  things  which  defile  a  man.  And,  were 
the  external  arrangements  of  society  ever  so  perfect, 
yet,  without  a  radical  change  in  men  individually, 
these  arrangements  would  be  ever  liable  to  corruption 
and  attended  with  much  misery.  The  second  is,  that 
inequalities  and  sufferings,  in  some  form  or  another, 
are  inseparable  from  man's  lot  upon  earth.  It  is 
a  principle  in  God's  moral  government  that  where 
there  is  no  sin  there  is  no  suffering.  Sin,  however 
mysterious    the    fact,    has    entered    this    world,    and 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  395 

suffering  as  a  penal  consequence  lias  followed  it. 
And  that  suffering  is  disciplinary  as  well  as  penal. 
The  prophets  of  social  regeneration,  however,  lay 
out  their  perfected  world  in  the  present  state,  and 
by  the  overthrow  of  the  existing  arrangements  of 
society,  would  at  once  usher  in  the  new  heavens 
and  new  earth.  The  third  thing  of  which  they  are 
oblivious  or  disbelieving  is,  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  not  a  mere  political  Gospel,  whose  favorite 
theme  is  equality  and  fraternity,  but  a  Gospel  bring- 
ing glad  tidings  of  a  free  and  full  salvation,  contain- 
ing ample  provision  for  expiating  human  guilt  and 
subduing  human  depravity,  and  giving  the  hope  of 
life  and  immortality  beyond  the  grave,  is  alone  capa- 
ble of  realizing  all  the  good  for  which  pants  the  soul 
of  humanity.  These  are  facts  confirmed  by  experi- 
ence, and  by  none  more  than  what  is  learned  from 
the  recent  shakings  among  several  of  the  European 
nations.  The  rise  of  a  new  and  better  order  of  things 
among  mankind  is  no  mere  dream  of  projectors.  The 
revelations  of  heaven  warrant  us  to  anticipate  it. 
But  we  must  look  for  its  realization  chiefly  to  the 
influence  of  nobler  principles  than  political  and  social 
theories.  Grapes  are  not  to  be  gathered  from  thorns 
nor  figs  from  thistles.  And  to  hold  out,  as  all  socialist 
projects  that  have  been  recently  in  agitation  do,  the 
hope  of  happiness  from  new  social  arrangements,  is 
to  delude  men  and  abet  the  cause  of  infidelity.  A 
religion  of  political  liberty  is  thus  substituted  for  the 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. 

The  second  thing,  in  the  way  of  injurious  influence. 


396  SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION. 

noticeable  in  many  of  these  theories,  is  the  endeavor 
to  identify  them  with  Christianity  itself.  The  ex- 
istence of  Christianity  is  an  influential  fact,  the 
sanction  of  which,  other  systems,  however  visionary 
and  destructive  of  its  spirit,  are  anxious  to  obtain. 
This  they  can  do  only  by  misrepresenting  and  vir- 
tually falsifying  it.  In  the  first  great  French  revolu- 
tion, there  was  no  compromise.  It  was  a  war  of  open 
extermination  against  everything  that  bore  the  Chris- 
tian name.  The  infidel  leaders  proclaimed  the  Chris- 
tian system  and  the  institutions  connected  with  it  to 
be  the  great  hinderances  in  the  progress  of  humanity, 
and  they  avowed  their  purpose  to  crush  and  extirpate 
the  whole.  But  infidels  now-a-days  are  covetous  of 
the  Christian  name,  and  each  one  would  have  his 
respective  system  accounted  the  gospel  which  is 
designed  to  regenerate  mankind.  Many  of  the 
leaders  of  socialism  have  claimed  to  be  regarded  as 
the  faithful  expositors  of  Christianity.  The  reforma- 
tion preached  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  is  declared 
to  have  been  a  social  regeneration.  The  Saviour  of 
the  world  is  hailed  as  the  prince  of  the  communists. 
The  substance  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be  found  in  those 
texts  which  inculcate  mutual  love  and  affection.  And 
the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  is  the  reign  of  equality 
and  fraternity.  Hegel,  as  we  have  seen,  recognized 
Christianity,  and  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  trinity, 
incarnation,  and  atonement ;  but  it  was  only  to  bring 
them  within  the  sweep  of  his  law  of  necessary  devel 
opment,  and  to  destroy  them  as  facts  on  which  men 
rest  their  faith  and   hope.     In  like  manner,  Fourier 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  397 

and  his  disciples,  and  even  Pierre  Leroux  the  pan- 
theist, who  has  been  acknowledged  by  the  French  to 
be  the  metaphysician  of  socialism,  have  sought  to 
graft  their  speculations  into  Christianity,  and  have  re- 
presented the  one  as  naturally  rising  out  of  the  other. 
In  short,  socialism  lays  hold  of  a  peculiar  charactei 
istic  of  Christianity,  which  it  severs  from  other  and 
yet  more  prominent  characteristics,  and  then  preach- 
ing it  up,  as  if  it  were  the  whole,  does  all  the  mischief 
which  infidelity  could  wish.  The  religions  of  pagan- 
ism and  of  a  corrupt  Christianity  have  had  much  of 
the  arrogance  and  assumptions  of  caste  about  them. 
They  have  endeavored  to  distribute  men  into  classes, 
and  have  had  their  esoteric  and  exoteric  doctrines. 
But  the  characteristic  of  Christianity,  to  which  we 
refer,  is,  that  it  spreads  a  feast  before  all  people,  that 
it  makes  little  account  of  natural  or  artificial  distinc- 
tions, that  it  propounds  and  offers  truth  without 
reserve  to  the  mass  of  mankind.  This  want  of  mo- 
nopoly in  Christianity,  which,  after  all,  is  but  its  ex- 
ternal aspect — the  big-hearted  and  benignant  attitude 
which  it  assumes  towards  the  nations — is  held  up  as 
if  it  were  its  essence.  Socialism  loves  the  generous 
and  compassionate  look  of  the  Gospel,  but  it  hates 
its  holy  humbling  requirements.  It  would  substitute 
Christianity  as  a  mere  liberal  social  economy,  for 
Christianity  as  a  system  of  pure  spiritual  truth.  How- 
ever visionary  and  absurd  this  may  appear,  yet  its 
influence  in  promoting  infidelity  among  the  masses 
must  have  been  great.  It  would  be  congenial,  in  the 
highest  degree,  to  the  social  disafiection  that  existed ; 


398  SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION. 

and,  thougli  utterly  destructive  of  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, would  in  multitudes  of  cases  be  the  more 
welcome  that  it  came  under  the  pretended  sanction 
of  Him  whose  "name  is  ploughed  into  the  history 
of  the  world."  The  faith  of  the  French  people,  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  is  a  political  faith.  It  has 
no  reference  to  man  as  guilty  before  God  and  radically 
depraved,  it  does  not  lay  hold  of  the  Gospel  as  in  the 
highest  sense  a  restorative  economy,  and  seeking  to 
make  men  free  by  delivering  them  from  the  state  of 
the  condemned,  and  forming  them  to  a  high  and 
holy  character.  It  is  not  a  new  thing  in  the  world's 
history  for  infidelity  to  have  propagated  itself  under 
the  Christian  name,  and  with  a  show  of  respect  to 
Christianity's  great  Founder. 

We  are  led  to  remark,  thirdly,  the  strong  tendency 
of  many  of  the  recent  socialist  theories  toward  pan- 
theism.— Humanity  is  everything  with  them.  The 
highest  being  is  man.  The  perfectibility  of  the  race 
is  asserted.  And  in  a  paradise  of  social  interests 
here,  the  idea  of  a  happy  world  beyond  is  excluded. 
This  is  more  especially  the  case  with  the  humanists, 
who,  in  their  rejection  of  an  historical  and  spiritual 
Christianity,  are  in  advance  of  other  schools  of  social- 
ism. In  fact,  pantheism  has  become  the  orthodox 
creed  of  the  system.  The  extremes  of  idealism  and 
socialism  meet,  in  declaring  that  religion  comes  not 
from  without  but  from  within,  that  it  has  no  objec- 
tive reality,  but  is  purely  a  matter  of  the  mind's  own 
creation.  We  say  that  the  sum  and  substance  of 
religion  is  to  be  found   in  the  Bible,  a  well-attested 


SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION.  399 

revelation  from  heaven,  and  that  it  only  becomes  the 
religion  of  man  individually  when  it  is  received  bj; 
faith,  and  thus  incorporated  with  all  his  springs  of 
thought  and  feeling.  But  the  humanist  says,  not  so. 
In  man  himself,  or  in  humanity,  is  to  be  found  all 
that  constitutes  religious  truth.  It  is  not  a  thing 
without,  lying  in  the  world  of  facts,  as  the  fortress  on 
the  hill  and  the  river  that  runs  at  its  base,  but  it  is  a 
part  of  man  himself,  having  neither  origin  nor  objec- 
tive reality  independent  of  himself  Ask  the  apostles 
of  this  system,  Where  is  your  God?  They  at  once 
reply,  God  is  in  man.  He  is  incarnate  in  humanity, 
and  dwells  in  every  member  of  the  human  race. 
Man  as  an  individual  dies,  but  humanity  is  inde- 
structible, in  the  continual  reproduction  of  the  race 
he  lives ;  and  this  is  the  life  and  immortality  brought 
to  light  by  the  gospel  of  socialism.  This  system  is 
just  as  intolerant  of  religion  as  an  historical  fact,  as 
it  is  of  private  property  as  a  thing  existing  in  law,  and 
it  would  proclaim  the  jubilee  of  humanity  by  abolishing 
both.  Socialism,  in  its  advanced  form,  has  thus  been 
influenced  by  the  extreme  ideal  philosophy ;  and,  in 
return,  lends  its  helping  hand  to  annihilate  an  his- 
torical Christianity.  If  it  passed  from  France  to 
Germany,  and  was  originated  by  Rousseau  and  the 
infidel  philosophy  of  last  century,  it  has  been  thrown 
into  the  German  mould,  and  has  come  out  in  the 
shape  of  undisguised  pantheism.  And  vast  mul- 
titudes who  have  neither  the  capacity  nor  the  in- 
clination to  follow  the  transcendentalist  philosopher 
in  his  lofty  and  bewildering  flight,  sit  at  the  feet  of 


400  SOCIAL   DISAFFECTION^. 

the  socialist  teaclier,  and  tlirougli  him  imbibe  all  the 
infidelity  with  which  that  philosophy  is  pregnant. 
Masses  of  men  who  are  socially  disaffected,  and  in 
whom  exists  little  or  nothing  of  vital  religion,  and 
whose  disaffection,  it  may  be,  is  turned  towards  some 
corrupt  form  of  Christianity  among  them,  are  readily 
carried  captive  by  a  pantheistic  socialism. 

Our  last  remark  here  is,  that  admiration  for  the 
political  principles  of  infidels  often  leads  men  to  think 
lightly  of  religion,  and  ultimately  to  cast  it  off  This 
is  especially  the  case  in  times  of  social  agitation. 
There  is  no  necessary  connection  between  politics, 
be  they  conservative  or  liberal,  and  infidel  opinions. 
Pious  as  well  as  irreligious  men  are  to  be  found  in 
the  ranks  of  all  political  parties.  Principles  of  civil 
polity  are  nothing  the  worse,  because  infidels  have 
held  and  advocated  them.  The  famous  Declaration 
of  American  Independence  was  not  the  less  illustrious 
because  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  prepared  it,  unhappily 
did  not  believe  in  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel.  It 
is  true,  however,  that  those  who  think  favorably  of 
the  political  principles  of  infidels,  are  apt  to  be  drawn 
away,  so  as  to  look  with  no  unfriendly  eye  on  the 
infidel  principles  themselves.  This,  owing  to  the 
original  depraved  bias  of  the  mind,  is  likely  to  be 
much  more  frequently  the  case,  than  that  love  for 
the  political  principles  of  a  Christian  should  lead 
men  to  embrace  his  Christianity.  It  has  been  not 
unreasonably  supposed  that  admiration  of  Hume  as 
a  metaphysician,  and  frequent  intercourse  with  him, 
had  no  small  influence  with  Smith  in  inducing  him 


SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION.  401 

to  expunge  from  his  "  Theory  of  Moral  Sentiments," 
the  well  known  and  remarkable  passage  in  which  he 
recognizes  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  revelation 
as  harmonizing  with  the  original  anticipations  of 
nature.  And  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  believe,  that 
multitudes  have  been  prejudiced  against  Christianity, 
been  kept  from  embracing  it,  or  been  induced  grad- 
ually to  renounce  it,  from  a  regard  to  the  political 
principles  of  the  men  at  whose  feet  they  have  sat. 
This  will  have  been  the  case  especially  when  the 
waters  at  the  base  of  the  social  edifice  have  been 
running  high,  and  men's  minds  have  been  agitated 
under  real  or  imaginary  social  wrongs.  If  it  has  been 
so  with  political  and  social  theories,  containing  no 
irreligious  elements  in  themselves,  but  dangerous 
only  when  advocated  by  influential  infidels,  much 
more  must  it  have  been  the  case  with  many  of  the 
recent  speculations  of  socialism,  in  which  the  liberal 
political  creed  and  the  infidel  sentiments  have  been 
so  blended  together  that  in  imbibing  the  one  men 
could  scarcely  avoid  imbibing  the  other. 

Infidelity  has  come  before  the  industrial  classes  in 
our  day  in  an  alluring  shape.  It  does  not  stand  forth 
in  its  own  proper  character.  It  has  appeared  in  the 
garb  of  a  liberal  system  of  politics,  professing  to 
redress  their  grievances,  and  holding  out  to  them  the 
hopes  of  social  elevation.  The  liberal  polity,  from 
its  very  connection,  has  recommended  the  infidel 
opinions,  and,  as  the  former  has  progressed,  so  have 
the  latter.  Robert  Hall  remarks,  "  the  efforts  of  in- 
fidels to  diffuse  their  principles  among   the  common 

26 


402  SOCIAL    DISAFFECTION. 

people  is  peculiar  to  the  present  time.  Hume, 
Bolingbroke,  and  Gibbon,  addressed  themselves  to 
the  more  polished  classes.  While  infidelity  was  rare, 
it  was  employed  as  the  instrument  of  literary  vanity. 
Its  wide  diffusion  having  disqualified  it  for  answering 
that  purpose,  it  is  now  adopted  as  the  organ  of 
political  convulsion."  He  is  speaking  of  the  time  of 
the  great  French  Revolution,  but  the  remark  is  no 
less  applicable  to  our  own  age.  Since  the  close  of  last 
century,  political  knowledge  has  made  great  progress 
among  the  people.  It  is  no  longer  with  fiercely 
ignorant  democracies  that  many  European  govern- 
ments have  to  deal.  The  schoolmaster,  in  many 
shapes,  has  been  abroad.  The  knowledge  imparted 
by  him  has  often  served  to  awaken  men  to  a  sense 
of  the  social  evils  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
without  any  salutary  counteractives  following  the 
discovery.  Social  disaffection,  the  inevitable  con- 
sequence of  letting  light  in  upon  darkness,  has  been 
engendered.  Hot-beds  of  infidel  socialism  have  thus 
been  prepared.  While  governments  have  been  making 
too  much  ado  about  the  people's  duties  and  too  little 
about  their  rights,  the  socialist  teachers,  with,  no  small 
measure  of  success,  have  been  incessantly  calling  the 
attention  of  the  masses  to  their  rights,  and  saying 
nothing  or  next  to  nothing  about  their  duties.  Out 
of  the  social  discontent,  occasioned  by  oppression  or 
neglect,  has  come  forth  an  evil  spirit,  uttering  at  once 
threatenings  against  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and 
blasphemies  against  the  God  of  heaven. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

THE    CORRUPTIONS   OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

Not  wonderful  that  Christianity  has  been  corrupted — It  has  been 
so  with  truths  of  science — No  promise  that  Christianity  should 
be  exempted — Corruptions  in  apostolic  churches — Paul  foretold 
them — Christianity  not  to  be  confounded  with  them  or  made 
responsible  for  them — Evil  in  judging  of  one  by  the  other 
— Two  evils  flourish  in  the  bosom  of  corrupted  Christianity : 
superstition  and  unbelief — Reciprocal  influence  of  these — Remark 
of  Plutarch — A  corrupted  Christianity,  and  Romanism  in  parti- 
cular, ministers  to  infidelity  in  three  ways  :  It  often  produces 
aversion  in  cultivated  minds  to  Christianity  itself — The  middle 
ages — France  and  other  Catholic  countries  in  last  century — 
Remark  of  Macaulay — Italy,  Spain,  France,  at  present  time — 
Tendency  of  Oxford  Tractism — Remarks  of  Rogers  and  Whately 
— It  leaves  the  mass  of  the  people,  in  times  of  excitement,  to  be 
captured  by  infidel  leaders — Instanced  in  France — It  furnishes 
weapons  for  attacking  Christianity  itself — Parallel  between  cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity  and  the  base  citizens  of  a  great  nation. 

The  best  of  things  in  this  world  are  liable  to  be  per- 
verted and  abused.  Good  is  often  made  to  assume 
the  shape  of  evil,  and  then  to  be  evil  spoken  of 
Christianity  is  the  very  last  system  that  could  be 
anticipated  to  escape  corruptions.  Its  doctrinal 
truths  are  so  elevating  in  their  character,  and  hum- 
bling to  the  pride  of  the  human  intellect,  that  men 
would  be  sure  to  distort  their  simple  grandeur,  and 
bring  them  down  to  the  level  of  their  own  enfeebled 


404  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

perceptions.  Its  morality  is  so  strict  and  pure, — 
being  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of 
the  heart,  and  admitting  of  no  compromise  with 
aught  that  is  unholy, — as  to  induce  those  who  are 
unwilling  to  follow  its  dictates,  and  yet  anxious  to 
have  its  sanction,  to  bend  it  to  their  own  prevailing 
inclinations.  Its  rites  are  so  few,  simple,  and  des- 
titute of  attractions  to  the  carnal  mind,  as  to  make 
it  no  matter  of  surprise  that  men  who  seek  righte- 
ousness in  mere  outward  observances,  should  add  to 
their  number,  and  render  them  meet  for  the  lust  of 
the  eye.  Christianity  has  been  frequently  so  much 
corrupted  in  its  doctrines,  morals,  and  institutions, 
as  to  have  rendered  it  somewhat  difficult  to  trace 
any  resemblance  between  the  blotched  copy  and  the 
fair  original. 

Every  system  of  truth  has  been  more  or  less 
corrupted  under  human  influence.  The  sublime 
science  of  astronomy  has  appeared  in  the  somewhat 
ridiculous  shape  of  astrology.  The  simple  science 
of  chemistry,  in  the  hands  of  the  alchemists,  was 
a  science  of  sheer  extravagances.  Natural  philo- 
sophy was  once  represented  by  magic.  Jurispru- 
dence, rightly  understood  and  applied,  protects  the 
helpless,  shields  the  innocent,  and  promotes  the 
liberty  and  prosperity  of  a  State;  but  it  has  often 
been  systematized  into  an  engine  of  lawless  oppress- 
ion. If  these  earthly  things,  which  are  by  no 
means  uncongenial  to  human  nature,  or  at  variance 
with  its  predominating  tendencies,  have  been  cor 
rupted    in   the   hands   of    men,    it   is   not   wonderful 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  405 

that  heavenly  things,  in  coming  down  to  the  earth, 
should  have  been  subjected  to  a  similar  influence. 
It  might  rather  have  been  anticipated,  that,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  revelation  from  above  was  purer  and 
loftier  than  the  principles  of  human  conduct,  would 
men  endeavor  to  distort  and  corrupt  it. 

It  is  divinely  promised  that  Christianity  shall  never 
be  destroyed,  but  there  is  no  promise  that  it  shall, 
in  every  case,  be  kept  free  from  corruptions.  So  far 
from  this,  that,  even  under  the  watchful  presidency 
of  inspired  men,  there  were  false  teachers  who 
crept  into  the  church  and  endeavored  to  pervert 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Yea,  Paul,  in  his  farewell 
address  to  the  elders  at  Miletus,  not  only  spake  of 
the  "grievous  wolves"  that  should  enter  into  the 
church  after  his  departure ;  but  he  warned  them 
that,  even  from  the  midst  of  their  ownselves,  should 
men  arise,  teaching  a  corrupted  Gospel,  to  draw  away 
the  disciples  after  them.  And  the  most  influential 
and  extensively  spread  form  of  a  corrupt  Christianity 
that  ever  existed,  was  clearly  foretold  in  the  apostol- 
ical writings.  They  speak  of  damnable  heresies,  of 
a  falling  away,  of  the  man  of  sin  being  revealed, 
and  of  the  working  of  the  mystery  of  iniquity. 

Christianity  is  not,  however,  to  be  confounded 
with  its  corruptions,  or  made  responsible  for  them. 
The  solar  light  is  pure  and  resplendent  in  itself, 
though  often  much  bedimmed  in  the  dense  medium 
through  which  it  passes.  The  fountain  may  be  clear 
as  crystal,  and  cast  up  no  mire  and  dirt,  while  the 
streams  are  much  polluted.     The   sacred   text   is   to 


406  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

be  distinguished   from   the   false  interpretations  that 
have  been  given  of  it.     The  doctrines,  precepts,  and 
rites  of  Christianity,  are  to  be  judged  of,  not  as  they 
appear   in   the   pages   of  the   fathers,  or  as  they  are 
exhibited  in  Romanism,  but  as  they,  are  made  known 
in   the   pages    of  the   apostles,    and   were   originally 
held    forth    in    the    churches    which    they    planted. 
Astronomy,    chemistry,    and   jurisprudence,    are    true 
sciences;  but  we  would  form  very  unfavorable  opin- 
ions of  them,  did  we   estimate  them  by  the   frauds 
of  the  astrologer,  the  dreaming  extravagances  of  the 
alchemist,    and    the   pleadings   and   practices    of  the 
corrupt  lawyer.     "  In  the  view  of  an  intelligent  and 
honest  mind,  the   religion  of  Christ   stands   as   clear 
of  all   connection  with   the    corruption   of  men,  and 
churches,  and   ages,  as   when   it   was   first   revealed. 
It  retains  its  purity  like  Moses  in  Egypt,  or  Daniel 
in   Babylon,    or    the    Saviour   of  the   world   himself 
while    he   mingled,  with    scribes    and    pharisees,    or 
publicans  and  sinners."^ 

The  evil  is,  that  multitudes  persist  in  judging  of 
the  grand  original  from  the  gross  caricature;  which 
is  just  as 'if  we  were  to  form  our  estimate  of  the 
Saviour's  character  from  the  representations  given 
by  the  chief  priests  and  rulers,  instead  of  beholding 
Him  who,  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies,  could  chal- 
lenge the  most  fierce  and  watchful  of  them  to 
convince  him  of  sin.  And  it  is -a  still  greater  evil, 
that,  in  consequence  of  taking  away  the  key  of 
knowledge,    suppressing   religious    inquiry,    and   pro- 

'  Foster's  Essays,  p.  195. 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  407 

hibiting  the  perusal  of  the  Scriptures,  men  have 
had  often  no  other  standard  by  which  to  estimate 
Christianity  as  a  revelation  from  heaven,  than  the 
corrupt  form.  It  might  indeed  be  said,  that  the 
very  corruption  of  the  doctrines,  precepts,  and  rites 
of  Christianity,  originating  as  it  does  in  a  tendency 
to  assimilate  the  Divine  to  the  human,  would  have 
made  it  more  accordant  with  the  tastes  of  depraved 
human  nature,  and  thereby  secured  it  a  wider  and 
firmer  reception.  Such  has  been  the  case.  Chris- 
tianity in  its  debased  forms  has  had  a  much  more 
extensive  sway,  and  numbered  vastly  more  adherents 
than  Christianity  as  it  came  from  God,  holy,  benignant, 
and  undefiled.  But  this  has  only  been  detrimental  to 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Christianity  in  its  undefiled 
form  is  the  great  antagonistic  influence  to  the  power  of 
Satan  on  earth.  He,  the  father  of  lies  and  the  seducer 
from  the  beginning,  has  polluted  the  streams  in  order  to 
divert  men  from  the  fountain.  And  the  Divine  author 
of  Christianity,  whose  prerogative  it  is  to  bring  good 
out  of  evil,  has  permitted  the  adversary,  in  a  consider- 
able extent,  to  succeed. 

It  deserves  notice  that  in  the  bosom  of  a  corrupted 
Christianity,  two  evils  flourish — superstition  and  un- 
belief— and  that  the  former  is,  in  some  measure,  the 
cause  of  the  latter.  It  was  so  with  the  religions  of 
the  old  Pagan  world,  all  of  which  were  gross  corrup- 
tions of  the  religion  of  nature;  as  Pvomanism  and 
some  other  Christianized  forms  are  gross  corruptions 
of  the  religion  of  revelation.  The  ignorant  and  de- 
based, in  the  presence  of  the  corrupt  system,  gener- 


408  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

ally  sink  into  the  arms  of  an  unbounded  superstition ; 
while  men  of  cultivated  and  philosophic  minds,  con- 
forming it  may  be,  from  policy,  to  the  outward  cere- 
monies, run  fitf  to  a  cold  and  hardened  unbelief.     It 
is  an  historical  fact  that  in  the  Augustan  age,  when 
the    larger    proportion   of    the   Eoman   people   were 
swelling  the  number  of  false  gods,  and  yielding  them- 
selves  up   to   the   most   degrading   superstitions,   (in 
which  they  were  countenanced  by  the  emperor   and 
the    nobles,)   the    Epicureans  were    outstripping    all 
other   philosophic   sects   in   the  propagation  of  their 
infidel  principles.     The  priest  laughed  in  his  sleeves 
at  the  delusions  of  the  people  whom  he  himself  was 
deluding;    the  orator,  in  the  senate,  avowed  his  dis- 
belief of  a  future  life,   and  repudiated   the  fabulous 
legends  respecting  the  gods  and  the  infernal  world ; 
and  the  historian  in  quoting  the  popular  religious  tradi- 
tions, intimated  that  he  did  not  believe  them.     The  in- 
fection spread  from  the  higher  and  more  intelligent 
classes  to  the  illiterate  multitude,  and  many,  in  renounc- 
ing the  gross  fables  of  Paganism,  shook  off  all  belief  in 
invisible  power  and  immortality. 

Plutarch,  whom  Tholuck  has  characterized  as  the 
individual  among  the  ancients  that  has  spoken  of 
belief,  unbelief,  and  superstition,  with  the  greatest 
wisdom  and  deepest  knowledge  of  mankind,  has 
said,  "unbelief  never  gives  occasion  for  superstition, 
while  the  latter  does  not  unfrequently  occasion  tho 
former ;  for  when  we  teach  perverted  views  in  refer- 
ence to  divine  things,  we  hold  out  occasion  for  total 
Bcepticism."     The  first  of  these  statements  is  by  no 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  409 

means  to  be  assented  to.  The  extreme  of  unbelief 
has  often  led  to  the  extreme  of  superstition.  Men 
from  believing  almost  nothing,  have  come  to  believe 
almost  everything.  Into  the  void  created  by  infi- 
delity, superstitions  have  rushed  and  been  eagerly 
received;  just  as  the  prodigal  son,  in  the  parable, 
would  have  welcomed  the  husks  when  he  began  to  be 
in  want.^  But  what  Plutarch  says  of  superstition  as  the 
cause  of  unbelief,  is  accurate  and  profound.  And  not 
less  worthy  of  his  wisdom,  is  his  admonition,  in  respect 
to  the  prevailing  tendency  of  his  age,  "let  every  man 
be  well  on  his  guard,  that,  in  order  to  escape  robbers, 
he  do  not  plunge  into  an  impassable  chasm ;  that  while 
escaping  from  superstition,  he  do  not  fall  into  the  power 
of  unbelief,  by  leaping  over  that  which  lies  between 
them,  viz.,  true  piety. "^ 

Superstition  and  unbelief,  in  the  ancient  world, 
generally  increased  as  the  corruptions  of  religion 
developed  themselves.  And  multitudes,  knowing  of 
no  other  alternative  than  the  robbers  or  the  chasm, 
escaped  from  the  former  and  plunged  into  the  latter. 

'  Neander  states  very  truly  the  mutual  connection  between  super- 
stition and  unbelief:  "these  two  distemjDered  conditions  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  are  but  opposite  symptoms  of  the  same  fundamental  evil,  of 
which  the  one  passes  easily  into  the  other.  When  once  the  inner 
life  is  become  thoroughly  worldly,  it  either  suppresses  all  religious 
feeling,  and  abandons  itself  to  infidelity :  or,  blending  itself  with  that 
feeling,  gives  to  it  an  interpretation  of  its  own,  and  thus  turns  it  to 
superstition.  The  desperation  of  unbelief  surrenders  the  troubled 
oDnscience  a  prey  to  superstition ;  and  the  irrationality  of  superstition 
makes  a  religion  suspected  by  the  thoughtful  mind." — Church  Hist., 
vol.  i.,  p.  18.     (Bohn's  edition.) 

"^  Tholuck  on  the  Moral  Influence  of  Heathenism,  p.  74. 


410  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

So  has  it  been  in  the  presence  of  a  corrupted  Chris 
tianity.  The  religion  of  nature  was  in  nowise  re- 
sponsible for  the  corruptions  in  which  heathenism 
enveloped  it.  The  heavens  declared  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  firmaiment  showed  forth  his  handiwork,  not- 
withstanding the  unbounded  superstition  and  unbelief 
that  prevailed.  The  religion  of  revelation  stands 
clear  of  all  the  distortions  into  which  men  have 
wrought  it,  and  of  all  the  abominations  with  which 
they  have  associated  it.  It  brings  glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  peace  on  earth,  and  good-will  toward 
men.  But  the  fine  gold  has  been  changed ;  and,  in 
tossing  away  the  counterfeit,  men  have  often  lost  sight 
of  the  heavenly  reality.  The  counterfeit,  however, 
must  bear  a  portion  of  the  guilt  in  the  dishonor 
done  to  the  pure  original ;  and  to  a  corrupted  Chris- 
tianity, as  a  subordinate  cause,  must  be  assigned  no 
small  amount  of  influence  in  occasioning  the  rejec- 
tion of  Christianity  itself  Dr.  Arnold  believed  the 
great  cause  of  hinderance  to  the  triumph  of  Chris- 
tianity to  lie  in  the  corruption  not  of  the  religion  of 
Christ,  but  of  the  church  of  Christ.  The  distinction 
serves  only  to  mark  off  more  broadly  the  Divine  reve- 
lation from  the  human  corruptions,  while  it  leaves  the 
latter  to  bear  much  of  the  blame  of  the  rejection  of 
the  former.  "  Christianity,"  says  he,  "being  intended 
to  remedy  the  intensity  of  the  fall  by  its  religion,  and 
fche  universality  of  the  evil  by  its  church,  hap  suc- 
ceeded in  the  first  because  its  religion  has  been 
retained  as  God  gave  it,  but  has  failed  in  the  second, 
because  its  church  has  been  greatly  corrupted." 


THE    COEEUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  411 

Romanism  is  not  the  only  form  of  a  corrupted 
Christianity.  There  is  the  Greek  church,  in  which 
are  to  be  found  many  of  the  same  corruptions  as  are 
found  in  the  Romish.  There,  in  the  very  bosom  of 
Protestantism,  are  the  Tractarians;  "those  factors 
for  Rome,"  as  Archbishop  Whateley  calls  them,  who 
"remind  one  of  Charon,  in  the  old  mythology,  that 
'  grim  ferryman  whom  poets  write  of,'  continually  ferry- 
ing over  multitudes  across  the  'melancholy  flood,'  to 
a  gloomy  shore,  from  which  he  regularly  returned 
himself  alone,  to  take  in  a  fresh  cargo.  "^  And,  under 
the  same  category  of  a  corrupted  Christianity,  must 
come  much  of  the  nominal  Protestantism  of  the  Con- 
tinent, out  of  which  has  arisen  a  cold,  deadening 
rationalism.  But  Romanism  occupies  the  bad  pre- 
eminence. Most  of  the  other  distorted  shapes  have 
been  but  mole-hills,  this  is  the  great  and  hideous 
mountain.  That  salvation  is  attainable  in  the 
Romish  church,  we  no  more  doubt  than?  we  question 
the  exalted  p'iety  of  such  men  as  Borromeo,  Fenelon, 
and  Pascal.  But,  consistent  with  this  admission, 
history  bears  us  out  in  affirming,  that  it  is  the  most 
corrupt  form  of  Christianity  that  has  prevailed  to  any 
considerable  extent;  and  that,  in  proportion  as  it 
gains  ground,  the  pure  spiritual  Christianity  of  the 
New  Testament  is  supplanted  or  impeded,  and  super- 
stition and  unbelief  appear.  It  has  no  more  been 
able  wholly  to  extinguish  the  flame  of  vital  piety, 
than  the  Egyptian  bondage  was  to  crush  the  Is- 
raelitish  spirit.  Even  when  a  thick  darkness  that 
*  Cautions  for  the  Times,  p.  302. 


412  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OP    CHRISTIANITY. 

miglit  be  felt  has  overspread  the  land,  the  children  of 
Israel  have  had  light  in  their  dwellings.  But  how 
large  a  space  does  it  occupy  in  the  history  of  the 
church  and  the  world;  how  very  numerous  are  the 
points  of  contrast  which  it  presents  to  the  simple 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus;  and,  itself  the  offspring  of 
darkness,  how  great  the  darkness  in  which  it  has 
shrouded,  for  ages,  a  large  portion  of  humanity ! 

It  is  of  the  system  as  a  whole  that  we  speak.  We 
know  that  within  its  pale  exist  men  of  every  grade, 
from  the  spiritually-minded  down  to  the  grossly 
superstitious  and  idolatrous.  And,  as  a  system,  it  is 
doubtless  the  most  corrupt  that  ever  bore  the  Chris- 
tian name,  and  has  proved  more  prejudicial  to  the 
pure  Gospel  of  Christ,  than  any  or  all  of  the  corrupt 
systems  which  have  not  professedly  waged  war  against 
it.  It  may  claim  a  venerable  antiquity,  but  Chris- 
tianity, as  it  came  down  from  heaven,  clothed  in  fine 
linen  clean  and  white,  datffes  beyond  it.  And  the 
centuries  that  it  reckons  up  in  its  age,  only  remind 
us  how  very  soon  the  mystery  of  iniquity  began  to 
work,  and  the  fine  gold  became  dim.  If  that  be  not 
the  most  corrupt  form  of  Christianity,  which,  under 
the  penalty  of  anathemas,  forbids  the  common  people 
to  read  the  Scriptures,  denies  that  they  are  a  com- 
plete rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  exalts  vain  tradi- 
tions as  of  equal  authority;  if  that  be  not  the 
most  corrupt  which  enjoins  the  worship  of  saints, 
images,  and  relics;  virtually  denies  the  perfection  of 
the  Christian  atonement  by  offering  up  the  sacrifice 
of  the  mass,  multiplies  the  number  of  the  sacraments, 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  413 

and  loads  the  simple  divine  institutes  with  a  gorgeous 
host  of  ceremom*^ ;  if  that  be  not  the  most  corrupt 
which  enslaves  the  mind  and  keeps  it  in  ignorance, 
and  which,  in  making  darkness  its  pavilion,  is  ever 
jealous  of  the  light ;  we  know  not  where  a  corrupted 
Christianity  is  to  be  found.  It  preserves  the  name  of 
Christianity,  and,  nominally,  at  least,  retains  its  doc- 
trines; but,  under  an  enormous  mass  of  corruptions, 
entombs  its  spirit. 

It  is  not  as  now  existing  in  Protestant  countries, 
surrounded  and  in  a  great  measure  influenced  by  the 
light  of  the  Reformation,  that  we  are  to  form  our 
estimate  of  it,  but  as  it  appears  in  Italy  and  Spain, 
where  it  developes  itself  according  to  the  authorized 
canons  of  the  church;  and  even  there  it  is  some- 
what under  the  check  of  the  advancing  mind  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  had  its  origin  in  the  attempt 
to  reconcile  the  adherents  of  the  worn-out  pagan 
worship,  who  were  scattered  in  considerable  numbers 
throughout  the  empire,  to  the  Christian  faith  which 
had  silenced  the  oracles  and  overthrown  the  altars  of 
polytheism.  It  was  a  kind  of  compromise  between 
the  old  worship  and  the  new.  The  church  hierarchy, 
so  early  as  the  days  of  Constantine,  evinced  a  ten- 
dency (so  often  shown  since  by  Romish  missionaries) 
to  give  Christian  baptism  to  individuals  while  yet  in 
the  bosom  of  heathenism,  and  to  make  old  supersti- 
tious practices  fit  into  the  Christian  worship.  The 
striking  resemblance  between  the  superstitions  of  Pa- 
pal Rome  and  Pagan  Rome,  has  often  been  pointed 
out.     Romanism,  by  its   perversions  of  great   Chris- 


414  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

tian  doctrines,  and  by  tlie  meretricious  ornaments 
with  which  it  has  loaded  simple  Christian  rites, 
has  earned  the  title  of  a  baptized  paganism.  No 
enlightened  mind,  looking  at  Christianity  as  ,it  is 
taught  in  the  New  Testament,  and  exemplified  by 
the  apostles  and  early  churches,  and  comparing  it 
with  the  Papal  system  as  enunciated  in  the  decrees 
of  councils,  embodied  in  its  existing  institutions, 
and  manifested  in  the  moral  condition  of  those 
lands  where  it  predominates,  can  help  concluding 
that  Popery  is  the  most  decrepit  and  corrupt  form 
of  Christianity. 

"  In  the  stagnant  marshes  of  corrupted  Christianity," 
remarks  Robert  Hall,  "infidelity  has  been  bred." 
Romanism  has  nourished  the  grossest  superstitions, 
and  given  rise  to  the  most  dissolute  scepticism.  By 
locking  up  the  treasures  of  divine  knowledge,  and 
substituting  penances,  indulgences,  and  pompous 
ceremonies,  for  an  enlightened  and  operative  faith, 
she  has  kept  the  great  mass  of  her  people  as  ignorant 
and  slavishly  superstitious  as  Hindoos ;  while  she  has 
disgusted  the  more  intelligent,  and  driven  them  into 
secret  or  open  infidelity. 

It  will  be  found,  then,  that  there  are  three  ways 
in  which  a  corrupted  Christianity,  and  more  especially 
the  Papacy,  the  master-piece  of  corruptions,  ministers 
to  infidelity. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  often  produces  aversion  in 
cultivated  and  reflecting  minds  to  Christianity  itself.  Men 
have  often  known  Christianity  only  by  Popery — its 
most  corrupt  form.     The  Romish  church  and  the  Chris- 


*  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  415 

tian  church,  the  Catholic  doctrines  and  the  Gospel 
doctrines,  they  have  been  taught  to  consider  as 
identical.  All  the  good  effected  by  Christianity  in 
the  world,  is  claimed  for  the  Papacy.  M.  de  Falloux, 
one  of  the  most  staunch  Eomanists  among  French 
statesmen,  strikingly  confounded  Christianity  with 
Eomanism,  when,  in  a  recent  speech  in  the  French 
Assembly,  he  went  on  to  say  the  Papacy  has  done 
this  good  and  that  good.  All  the  corruptions  of 
Popery,  on  the  other  hand,  are  laid  by  multitudes  at 
the  door  of  Christianity.  If  they  read  history,  so 
large  a  space  does  Romanism  occupy,  that,  (over- 
looking the  little  uncorrupted  church  of  Christ  which 
has  ever  been  as  a  green  islet  in  a  troubled  sea  or  as 
a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place,)  the  history  of  the 
Papacy  is  with  them  the  history  of  Christianity.  And 
that  history  is  dark,  foul,  and  loathsome.  It  is  a 
series  of  dire  oppressions,  and  hideous  corruptions ; 
the  record  of  a  system  which,  professing  to  free  and 
elevate  man,  has  debased  and  enslaved  him ;  a  system 
loving  the  darkness  and  hating  the  light,  full  of  pious 
frauds  and  outrageous  crimes.  They  look  around  the 
land  in  which  they  dwell,  and  Romanism,  unchange- 
able in  its  mummeries  and  corruptions,  in  its  enslaving 
and  benighting  influences,  rises  up  before  them  as 
the  all-explaining  fact  of  the  Christian  Dispensation. 
Such  men  on  becoming  enlightened,  and  emerging 
out  of  the  superstition,  in  which  the  masses  are  sunk, 
inwardly,  if  not  avowedly,  loathe  the  gross  doctrines, 
cumbersome  rites,  and  absurd  practices  of  the  church. 
And  if  they  know  not  a  purer  faith,  or,  by  the  very 


416  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

loathing  wliicli  they  have  contracted,  are  averse  to 
inquire  after  it,  the  consequence  will  be  either  that, 
retaining,  from  policy,  an  outward  connection  with 
Rome,  they  secretly  cherish  infidelity;  or,  adopting 
an  honester  though  still  a  fatal  course,  they  pass 
openly  over  to  the  ranks  of  those  who  denounce 
Christianity  as  a  cunningly-devised  fable. 

This  is  no  mere  supposition.  The  history  of  the 
past  and  the  experience  of  the  present  corroborate  it. 
During  the  dark  ages,  Christianity,  in  the  hands  of 
Romanism,  sunk  into  the  grossest  superstition;  and 
that  superstition  was  the  occasion  of  a  vast  amount 
of  the  then  existing  infidelity.  A  pure  Gospel  was 
then,  as  always,  in  the  world,  but  it  was  wandering 
in  deserts,  and  in  mountains,  and  in  dens,  and  caves 
of  the  earth,  being  destitute,  af&icted,  tormented.  It 
was  a  sadly-depraved  Christianity,  more  like  a  demon 
of  darkness  than  an  angel  of  light,  that  stood  before 
men ;  and  no  wonder  that  multitudes  mistook  the 
demon  for  the  angel,  and  in  rejecting  the  one,  re- 
jected the  other  also.  In  the  fifteenth  century,  when 
monkish  superstition  overspread  the  world — a  thick 
darkness  that  preceded  the  break  of  day — men  of 
learning  and  classical  attainments  in  the  church, 
such  as  Leo  the  tenth,  Bembo,  and  many  others,  were 
infidels ;  and  their  infidelity,  even  amid  the  abounding 
degeneracy,  they  could  scarcely  conceal.  Under  the 
shadow  of  the  church  were  at  once  nourished  a  gross 
superstition  and  a  profligate  scepticism. 

It  was  even  so  in  the  latter  half  of  last  century. 
Protestantism   had,    in    many    quarters,    sunk   into   a 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  417 

deep  apathy.  A  dry  and  sapless  ortliodoxy,  followed 
by  a  carnal  life,  had  supplanted  the  life-giving  Gos- 
pel in  the  churches,  Romanism,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  increased  greatly  in  insolence  and  corruptions. 
The  pure  form  of  Christianity,  except  in  a  few  places, 
had  lost  its  vigor ,  and  the  corrupt  form  had  become 
proportionately  more  corrupt.  The  consequence  was 
an  inexpressible  disgust  in  the  minds  of  enlightened 
men  at  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Romish 
church,  followed  afterwards  by  an  outburst  of  infi- 
delity and  impiety.  The  church  of  France,  before 
the  Revolution  of  1789,  had  left  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  in  the  most  extreme  ignorance,  and  had 
disguised  religion  in  a  tissue  of  frauds  and  impos- 
tures. Its  intestine  quarrels,  its  grievous  oppressions, 
its  benighting  influences,  its  absurd  pagan  mum- 
meries, had  rendered  it  an  object  of  disgust  and 
contempt  to  the  more  intelligent  portion  of  the 
nation.  The  spirit  of  infidelity  waxed  mightily. 
Romanism,  being  the  only  form  of  Christianity  that 
came  prominently  under  men's  notice,  was  con- 
founded or  identified  with  Christianity  itself  And 
men,  in  making  a  rebound  from  a  gross  and  oppress- 
ive superstition,  overlooked  the  little  true  piety  that 
lay  between,  and  fell  into  the  abyss  of  unbelief  The 
growing  corruptions  of  the  system  opened  men's 
eyes,  and  convinced  them  of  its  falsehood ;  and  some 
being  unwilling,  and  others  unable,  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  Christianity  as  a  revelation  from 
heaven,  and  Christianity  as  distorted  and  deformed 
by  Popery,  the  former  had  to  bear  the  crimes  of  the 

27 


418  THE    CORRUPTIONS   OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

latter,  and  in  the  fierce  onset,  the  destruction  of 
Romanism  was  hailed  as  the  abolition  of  Christianity 
itself  The  Archbishop  of  Paris  and  others,  in 
publicly  renouncing  Popery,  proclaimed  their  dis- 
belief in  Christianity. 

Such  was  the  case,  to  a  considerable  extent,  in 
all  the  other  Catholic  countries  of  Europe,  during 
last  century.  The  church  of  Rome  was  fast  losing 
its  hold  on  men's  minds.  Infidelity,  in  many  places, 
gained  the  ascendant.  Multitudes,  in  escaping  from 
superstition,  rushed  into  unbelief.  Mr.  Macaulay 
remarks,  that  "at  the  time  of  the  Reformation, 
whole  nations  renounced  Popery  without  ceasing  to 
believe  in  a  First-Cause,  in  a  future  life,  or  in  the 
Divine  mission  of  Jesus.  In  the  last  century,  on 
the  other  hand,  when  a  Catholic  renounced  his 
belief  in  the  real  presence,  it  was  a  thousand  to  one 
that  he  renounced  his  belief  in  the  Gospel  too."^ 
The  reason  of  the  difference  is  obvious.  The  Ref- 
ormation was  a  voice  calling  aloud,  like  a  trumpet, 
on  the  slumbering  nations  to  awake.  It  was  liberty, 
in  all  the  vigor  of  youth,  undoing  the  heavy  bur- 
dens, breaking  every  yoke,  and  bidding  the  oppressed 
go  free.  It  was  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God, 
as  fresh  and  mighty  as  when  preached  by  Paul, 
proclaiming  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and 
bringing  the  good  news  of  a  free  and  full  salvation 
to  distressed  and  wearied  souls.  The  men  who 
called    upon    others    to     escape    from    the    robbers 

•   .  '  Review  of  Rankc's  History  of  the  Pope's. 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  •419 

pointed  them  to  the  city  of  refuge,  and  thus  the 
nations  escaped  the  chasm.  But  the  Protestantism 
of  the  Continent,  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
had,  to  a  fearful  extent,  lost  the  life  which  the  Re- 
formation originally  breathed  into  it.  It  was  slum- 
bering on  the  lap  of  rationalism.  The  trumpet  had 
fallen  from  its  lips.  It  had  substituted  mere  ab- 
stractions, or  negations,  for  the  life-giving  word. 
And  when  multitudes  were  rushing,  like  prisoners 
let  loose,  from  an  oppressive  superstition.  Protest- 
antism, shorn  of  its  locks,  wanted  the  power  to 
arrest  them  at  an  intermediate  point,  and  prevent 
them  from  falling  into  the  abyss  of  infidelity. 

Again,  if  we  look  to  those  parts  of  the  Continent 
where  a  corrupted  Christianity  is  dominant  in  otir 
own  day,  we  find  abundant  illustrations  of  the  posi- 
tion which  we  are  endeavoring  to  establish.  These 
two  excrescences  of  religious  life,  as  Tholuck  calls 
them,  superstition  and  unbelief,  appear  very  promi- 
nently. One  portion  of  the  people,  generally  the 
more  ignorant,  are  sunk  in  superstition,  and  blindly 
devoted  to  gross  ceremonies.  The  other,  and  more 
enlightened  portion,  (saving  those  who  have  embraced 
the  genuine  Gospel,)  having  confounded  the  pure 
and  the  corrupt,  have  lapsed  into  secret  or  open 
unbelief  In  the  bosom  of  Romanism,  men  have 
been  taught  to  regard  every  species  of  Protestantism 
as  an  upstart  faith,  and  lying  without  the  pale  of  the 
true  church.  And  multitudes,  in  abandoning  the 
one  for  its  corruptions,  have  not  been  divested  of 
their   prejudices   in   reference   to  the  other   so  as   to 


420  THE    CORRUPTIONS   OF    CHRISTIANITi'. 

seek  in  it  a  religious  home.  It  has  been  deemed 
no  libel  to  affirm  that  many  intelligent  Pvomanists 
on  the  Continent,  who  are  too  clear-sighted  to  be 
befooled  by  the  mummeries  of  the  Papacy,  and  too 
politic  openly  to  proclaim  their  hostility,  have  no 
faith  in  the  Christian  revelation.  In  Italy,  in  Spain, 
and  France,  Romanism,  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation, 
is  Christianity,  and  Christianity  is  Romanism.  Men 
still  judge  of  the  pure  gold  by  the  base  counterfeit, 
they  decide  on  the  merits  of  the  heavenly  original 
by  the  earthly  caricature.  Indeed,  in  many  cases, 
the  distorted  form  is  still  the  only  shape  in  which 
Christianity  comes  under  observation,  so  that,  in 
loosing  their  hold  of  the  one,  men  give  up  all  the 
Christianity  that  ever  they  knew.  And  in  other 
cases,  the  rebound  from  Romanism,  in  cultivated 
minds,  is  proportioned  to  the  former  pressure,  so 
that,  to  repeat  Plutarch's  saying,  men  in  escaping 
from  the  robbers,  plunge  into  the  chasm. 

"Italy,"  says  Dr.  Achilli,  "pants  to  shake  off 
Popery.  But,  with  few  exceptions,  men  who  have 
seen  Popery  and  Christianity  so  intimately  connected 
with  one  another,  have  not  spiritual  discernment  to 
separate  the  one  from  the  other,  and  with  the  false- 
hoods of  Rome,  they  reject  the  sublimest  truths  of 
Christianity.  .  .  Italy  is  full  of  men  who,  ceas- 
ing to  believe  in  the  Romish  dogmas,  have  ceased  to 
believe  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  One 
main  cause  of  this,  is  their  ignorance  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture." Pantheism  and  deigm  are,  accordingly,  occu- 
pying much  of  the  ground  in  the   Italian  peninsula 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  421 

which  has  been  prepared,  though  lost,  by  Romish 
superstition.  Dr.  James  Thomson,  whose  acquaint- 
ance with  the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  Spain 
is  so  extensive,  tells  us,  that  "  many  of  the  middling 
classes  are  free-thinkers  or  atheists.  They  could 
not  be  easily  brought  to  read  the  Bible,  for  being 
disgusted  with  priestcraft  and  its  impositions,  they 
believe  nothing  and  will  hear  of  nothing."  The  cor- 
ruptions of  Christianity  in  that  once  proud  land  are 
fearfully  glaring,  and  infidelity,  as  the  consequence,  is 
ravaging  the  country.  Romish  pretensions  in  France, 
since  the  revolution  of  1848,  have  revived.  But 
France  has  no  faith  in  them.  They  may  be  made 
to  play  a  part  in  the  shifting  scenes  of  the  political 
drama.  But  discerning  men  predict  that  they  will 
revive  the  spirit  of  Voltaire,  and  extend  the  dominion 
of  infidelity.  "  For  the  great  masses  of  our  French 
population,"  says  M.  Roussel,  "  Christianity  is  Roman- 
ism, and  Romanism  is  the  mass,  confession,  cere- 
monies, fasts,  and  a  thousand  ridiculous  supersti- 
tions ;  and  here  we  have  a  distinct  reason  why  infi- 
delity prevails  in  France." 

And,  to  come  home,  what  have  we  in  the  "  Oxford 
School"  but  a  source  of  corruption,  one  stream  of 
which  is  continually  running  to  Rome,  and  another 
going  off  to  scepticism.  Mr.  Henry  Rogers  affirmed, 
in  1843,  in  an  article  in  the  Edinhurgh  Revieiv^  that 
"  the  desperate  assertion  that  the  '  evidence  for  Chris- 
tianity '  was  no  stronger  than  that  for  '  church  prin- 
ciples,' must,  by  reaction,  lead  on  to  an  outbreak  of 
infidelity."     And   he   can   now   say,    "  that   prophecy 


422  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTl A.NITY. 

has  been  to  the  letter  accomplished." '  Newman. 
Foxton,  Froude,  and  others,  who  are  waging  war 
against  Christianity,  are  the  result. 

The  present  Archbishop  of  Dublin  devotes  several 
numbers  of  his  "  Cautions  for  the  Times,"  to  shov/ 
that  the  Tractite  party  in  depreciating  the  in- 
vestigation of  Christian  evidence,  and  insisting 
on  an  implicit  faith  in  what  is  taught  ;  in  putting 
the  Scripture-miracles  on  a  level  with  the  absurd 
miracles  of  later  times ;  in  covertly  and  by  implica- 
tion discouraging  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
exalting  the  authority  of  "traditionary  revelation;" 
in  earnestly  deprecating  the  exercise  of  private  judg- 
ment in  religious  matters ;  and  in  making  Chris- 
tianity assume  the  form  of  a  religion  of  mere  outward 
rites  and  observances ; — are  doing  "  more  to  shake 
the  authority  of  Scripture  than  all  the  attacks  made 
by  infidels  directly  upon  it,  ever  have  done,  or  ever 
can  do.  For  Scripture  is,  in  itself,  invulnerable  ; 
and  they  who  attack  it,  do  but  dash  themselves  to 
pieces  against  a  rock.  But  it  may  be  easily  shown 
that  '  the  fathers  of  the  church '  are  mere  human 
teachers,  who  often  deliver  false,  and  sometimes  even 
absurd  things,  as  true  doctrine.  To  encumber  Chris- 
tianity, therefore,  with  the  defence  of  their  errors  and 
absurdities, — and  make  that  essential  to  the  safety  of 
our  religion, — is  voluntarily  to  exchange  an  impreg- 
nable fortress  for  a  position  which  cannot  be  main- 
tained against  the  enemy."  ~  Once  persuade  men,  as 
the   Oxford  tractarians  endeavor  to  do,  that  there  is 

'  Reason  and  Faith.  ^  Cautions  for  the  Times,  p.  343. 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  423 

no  alternative  between  their  church  principles  and 
infidelity,  and  many,  seeing  the  sorry  foundatiei  on 
which  the  former  rest,  will  be  led  to  pass  over  to  the 
latter.  "  One  might  almost  thank  you,""  said  a 
thoughtful  young  man,  on  leaving  the  church  of  St. 
Mary's,  Oxford,  where  one  of  the  most  determined 
of  the  tractarian  preachers  had  been  holding  forth  in 
this  strain, — "one  might  almost  thank  you  for  infi- 
delity as  an  antagonist  to  this  God-dishonoring  and 
man-debasing  system,"^  Thus  it  is  that  superstition, 
baptized  with  the  Christian  name,  leads  on,  by  re- 
action, to  unbelief 

2.  Another  way  in  which  a  corrupted  Christianity, 
and  more  especially  the  Papacy,  ministers  to  infi- 
delity, is, — that  it  leaves  the  mass  of  the  people^  among 
whom  it  prevails,  to  be  captured  hy  infidel  leaders  in  times 
of  national  excitement  The  times  of  the  great  French 
revolution  furnished  abundant  and  fearful  illustra- 
tions of  the  truth  of  this  remark.  The  only  religion 
which  the  great  body  of  the  French  people,  at  the 
period  referred  to,  was  familiar  with,  was  a  bastard 
Christianity.  And  that  bastard  had  hoodwinked,  pil- 
fered, and  enslaved  them.  It  had  interdicted  re- 
ligious inquiry,  it  had  jealously  withheld  from  them 
the  pure  word  of  life,  and,  in  the  room  of  the  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy,  it  had  presented  them  with  a 
system  of  impostures  and  falsehoods.  The  atheistical 
philosophers,  men  who  knew  of  the  existence  of  a 
purer  religion,  but  who  wished  to  bring  every  form 
of  religion  into  the  same  condemnation,  found  the 
'  Christian  Times,  (Nov.  1850.) 


424  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

people   in   this   condition,  and  determined  to  turn  it 
to  their  own  destructive  aims.     It  was  easy  to  point 
out  to  the  people  the  trash,  which,  in  the  name  of 
religion,  had  been  gathering,  during  ages  of  darkness 
and  ignorance,  around  them;    easy  it  was  to  expose 
and  hold  up  to  ridicule  the  absurd  doctrines,  puerile 
ceremonies,   extravagant   pretensions,   and   oppressive 
exactions  of  the  church  of  which  they  were  children ; 
and  easy  too  it  was,  amid  the  darkness,  to  confound 
Popery   with   Christianity,    and    make    ignorant    and 
enslaved  men  believe  that  the  religion  of  Christ  was 
opposed  to  the  rights  of  man,  that  it  was  the  wretch, 
the   oppressor.       The   lamp   of  Christian  truth,  as    a 
light   shining   in   a  dark  place,  was  in  the  land,  but 
it   was   well   nigh   overpowered   by  the   surrounding 
obscurity.     And  men,  having  been  trained  to  regard 
Eomanism   as   the   only  true    Christianity,  were    now 
easily  persuaded  by  their  infidel  leaders,  in  abjuring 
Romanism,  to  reject  Christianity  itself 

Had  the  church  of  France,  previous  to  the  revolu- 
tion, instructed  the  people  in  the  Gospel  truth,  put 
into  their  hands  the  pure  word  of  God,  and  preached 
the  doctrines  of  the  cross  from  her  pulpits ;  had  she 
stood  forth  before  the  eye  of  the  nation  identified 
with  all  that  is  pure  and  lovely,  and  of  good  report  in 
Christianity;  then,  though  a  revolution  had  been 
necessary,  and  infidel  leaders  might  not  have  been 
wanting,  the  body  of  the  people  would  have  been 
kept  from  those  dreadfully  impious  excesses  with 
which  the  revolution  was  stained.  As  it  was,  how- 
ever, the  fair  form  of  religion  wore  a  repulsive  dis- 


THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  425 

guise  lay  upon  the  neck  of  the  nation  like  a  yoke, 
had  kept  it  in  a  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage  ;  and, 
the  people  being  thus  left  a  prey  to  pretending  phi- 
losophers, were  taught  to  avenge  themselves  by 
throwing  of  the  heavy  burden,  and  trampling  every- 
thing bearing  the  name  of  Christianity  in  the  dust, 
A  corrupt  church  left  the  people  to  be  seduced  by 
an  atheistical  philosophy;  and  the  protracted  effect 
is  seen  at  the  present  day,  for,  amid  the  illumination 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  French  nation  is  nom- 
inally Roman  Catholic,  but  at  heart  without  faith  in 
the  Christian  revelation.  This,  then,  is  one  of  the 
chief  ways  in  which  a  corrupted  Christianity  ministers 
to  infidelity.  It  plunges  the  people  into  superstition, 
and  out  of  that  superstition,  at  the  call  of  ungodly 
leaders,  rises  the  demon  of  unbelief.  That  demon 
is  now  stalking  abroad  in  many  lands. 

3.  The  corruptions  of  Christianity  form  also  an 
armory  out  of  ivMcJi  infidels  taJve  lueapons  to  attack 
Cliristianity  itself.  Their  own  infidelity  may  be  ac- 
counted for  in  another  way ;  but  their  hands  are 
strengthened  by  the  impostures,  absurdities,  and 
oppressions,  which,  bearing  the  Christian  name,  have 
converted  that  which  is  a  blessing  into  a  curse.  A 
good  cause  when  depraved  and  made  hideous  by 
professed  friends,  becomes  auxiliary  to  its  avowed 
enemies.  It  is  rarely  that  such  men  attack  Chris- 
tianity as  it  is  developed  in  the  sacred  volume, 
and  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  real  Christians,  but  as 
it  has  been  represented  by  themselves,  or  as  it 
exists  imbbeded  in  a  mass  of  corruptions.     They  are 


426  THE    CORRUPTIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITT. 

wont  to  appeal  to  the  ignorance  and  superstition,  the 
priestcraft  and  crime,  existing  under  a  grossly  per- 
verted Christianity,  of  which  unhappily  the  greater 
part  of  church  history  is  too  full,  and  nations  nominally 
Christian  present  too  abundant  illustrations, — and, 
with  a  dishonesty,  wofully  glaring  but  often  effectual, 
represent  the  evils  as  if  they  were  the  fruits  of  Chris- 
tianity itself.  These  were  the  weapons  which  were 
brandished  by  Paine  and  his  school;  Holywell  Street 
bristled  with  them;  and  they  are  not  unfrequently 
taken  up  by  a  class  of  adversaries  who  would  re- 
pudiate all  sympathy  with  Paine  in  his  coarse  blas- 
phemy and  vulgar  impudence.  The  grossest  dark- 
ness and  superstition  have  existed  and  been  retained 
under  the  shadow  of  the  church,  the  direst  op- 
pressions and  the  most  outrageous  crimes  have 
been  perpetrated  in  the  Christian  name;  and  these, 
the  effects  of  a  sadly  distorted  Christianity,  are, 
with  little  ingenuity  and  less  modesty,  thrown  in  the 
face  of  undefiled  Christianity  itself.  Men  can  dis- 
tinguish between  astrology  and  astronomy,  between 
chemistry  and  alchemy,  between  natural  philosophy 
and  magic,  and  they  never  think  of  employing  the 
one  to  fight  against  the  other.  But  they  have  other 
interests  than  those  of  truth  to  serve,  in  being  un- 
willing to  distinguish  the  heavenly  from  the  earthly — 
the  religion  of  God  from  the  religion  of  man. 

Upon  the  whole,  then,  we  may  say  that  it  has  often 
fared  with  Christianity,  on  account  of  its  corruptions, 
as  it  has  sometimes  done  with  the  character  of  a 
great  nation,  because  of  the  degeneracy  of  t])ose  who 


THE    CORRUPTIONS   OF    CHRISTIANITY.  427 

were  considered  to  represent  it.  The  inhabitants  of  a 
distant  land,  who  never  saw  any  better  specimens  of 
the  English  character  than  the  drunken  ship's  crew 
that  time  after  time  visited  their  shores,  and  per- 
petrated fraud,  robbery,  and  oppression,  have  no  faith 
in  the  virtue  of  the  English  nation.  They  identify 
it  with  intemperance,  deceit,  and  cruelty;  and  look 
with  jealousy  and  detestation  on  every  white  man 
that  sets  his  foot  on  their  soil,  even  though  he 
comes  to  bless  them.  The  English  in  India,  during 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  by  their 
rapine,  impiety,  and  licentiousness,  led  the  natives  to 
regard  them  as  little  better  than  fiends  let  loose 
from  hell  to  ravage  their  coasts.  Other  peoples 
again,  who  know  full  well  that  the  depraved  class, 
which  now  and  then  come  under  their  observation, 
are  but  spurious  specimens  of  the  true  Britons, 
choose,  out  of  ill-will,  or  some  unworthy  motive,  to 
hold  them  up  as  types  of  England's  character. 
There  is  a  true  national  character  which  gives  the 
lie  to  the  libel,  and  there  is  a  pure  benignant  Chris- 
tianity which  disowns  the  corrupt  as  its  representa- 
tive. Nevertheless,  the  base  citizens,  in  the  eyes  of 
foreigners,  produce  and  strengthen  scepticism  in  re- 
gard to  the  national  honor ;  and,  in  like  manner, 
the  corrupt  form  of  Christianity  gives  occasion  for 
rejecting  the  true. 


CHAPTER  V. 


KELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

Much  intolerance  without  the  Church — Christianity  itself  stands 
clear  of  all  within  it — Its  Founder  the  most  tolerant  of  beings — 
Precepts  and  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  lives  of 
the  best  Christians,  acquit  the  gospel  of  the  charge — Accidental 
association  of  intolerance  with  the  religion  of  Christ,  has  often 
been  injurious  to  it — Three  manifestations  of  intolerance  noticed : 
— 1st.  Jealousy  in  reference  to  science  : — Nature  and  revelation 
ia  harmony — Astronomy  and  the  Bible  once  set  at  variance — 
Galileo — A  right  principle  of  Scriptural  interpretation  harmonizes 
Bible  language  with  the  true  system  of  the  universe — 'Geology — 
Great  antiquity  of  the  globe  a  result,  not  an  assumption — Per- 
fect harmony  between  this  and  the  Mosaic  record — Injurious 
influence  of  refusing  the  harmonizing  principle. — 2d.  Jealousy 
in  reference  to  any  departure  from  the  common  mode  of  pulpit 
teaching — Want  of  Paul's  principle  of  accommodation  in  consist- 
ency with  great  prominence  to  doctrines  of  the  cross — Necessity 
of  a  wider  and  more  diversified  range — Chalmers'  Astronomical 
Discourses. — 3d.  Intolerance  of  Diflferent  forms  and  observances 
— Much  handled  by  infidels — Causes  disaffection  to  Christianity 
in  many  intelligent  and  liberal  minds — Such  a  spirit  rebuked  by 
Christ. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  a  great  deal  of  the 
intolerance  in  the  world  lies  without  the  pale  of  the 
church,  and  that  from  all  the  intolerance  found 
within  it,  Christianity  itself  is  entirely  free.  One 
would  imagine,  to  hear  some  objectors,  that  the  thing 
had  no  existence  except  among  the  adherents  of  the 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  429 

CJhristiaa  system,  and  that  it  was  the  native  fruit  of 
the  system  itself  Some  men  see  corruptions,  divi- 
sions and  intolerances,  nowhere  except  within  the 
province  of  revealed  religion;  and  they  cannot,,  or 
will  not,  distinguish  between  that  religion  and  the 
abuses  that  have  crept  around  it,  or  the  evils  done  in 
its  name.  It  is  necessary,  accordingly,  to  remind 
such  individuals  that  intolerance  has  had  a  place  in 
the  schools,  and  in  the  senate,  as  well  as  in  the 
church ;  that  philosophy,  literature,  and  politics, 
have  keenly  manifested  it,  as  well  as  systems  of 
religion;  and  that  while  the  evil  could  often  be 
shown  to  have  been  the  natural  effects  of  the  human 
system,  it  could  as  easily  be  shown  to  be  foreign  to 
the  divine. 

The  character  of  Christianity  is  to  be  judged  of  by 
the  spirit  of  its  Founder,  by  its  precepts  and  doctrines 
as  contained  in  the  New  Testament,  and  by  the  con- 
duct of  those  who  have  been  acknowledged  to  be  most 
under  its  influence.  The  man  Christ  Jesus — the 
holy,  harmless,  and  undefiled  One — was  the  most 
tolerant  of  beings.  In  him  were  harmoniously 
blended  two  great  principles:  an  uncompromising- 
attachment  to  the  truth,  and  great  forbearance  to- 
ward those  who  were  weak  in  faith,  or  as  yet 
strangers  to  its  power.  He  declared  before  Pilate 
"to  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  cause  came  I 
into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the 
truth."  And  so  ardent  was  his  zeal  for  the  truth, 
and  so  faithful  his  attachment  to  it,  that  men  who 
take   a   one-sided  view  of  things,    and   confound   an 


430  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

enlighteiiecl  regard  to  truth  with  intolerance,  might 
indeed  bring  the  charge  against  the  Saviour  himself. 
Had  some  persons  who  are  ever  raising  this  cry 
against  Christianity,  seen  him,  in  holy  indignation, 
expelling  the  buyers  and  sellers  from  the  temple ; 
or  heard  him  utter  such  uncompromising  language 
as  this, — "  he  that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me — If 
any  man  will  be  my  disciple,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me," — they  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  ascribed  it  to  an  intolerant  spirit. 
How  libellous  would  have  been  the  charge!.  For 
we  have  only  to  behold  the  faithful  and  true  witness, 
while  firmly  grasping  the  truth,  exemplifying  its 
kindly  spirit,  and  discountenancing  in  his  followers 
any  manifestations  of  temper  inconsistent  with  it. 
He  rebuked  the  various  kinds  of  intolerance  that 
were  manifested  in  his  day.  There  was  the  intoler- 
ance of  the  synagogue,  or  of  church  exclusiveness, 
which  expresses  itself  in  the  cry,  "  the  temple  of  the 
Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord,  are  we."  And  he  said 
to  it,  "I  tell  you  of  a  truth,  many  widows  were  in 
Israel  in  the  days  of  Elias,  when  the  heaven  was  shut 
up  three  years  and  six  months,  when  great  famine 
was  throughout  all  the  land ;  but  unto  none  of  them 
was  Elias  sent,  save  unto  Sarepta,  a  city  of  Sidon, 
unto  a  woman  that  was  a  widow.  And  many  lepers 
were  in  Israel  in  the  the  time  of  Eliseus  the  prophet ; 
and  none  of  them  was  cleansed,  saving  Naaman  the 
Syrian."  There  was  the  intolerance  of  a  monopo- 
lizing caste,  the  germs  of  which  '  appeared  in  his 
own  partially  enlightened  disciples  who  would  forbid 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  431 

the  man  casting  out  demons  because  he  did  not  form 
one  of  their  company.  And  Jesus  said,  "  forbid  him 
not :  for  he  that  is  not  aj^ainst  us  is  for  us."  There 
was  the  intolerance  of  jnisplaced  zeal,  as  manifested 
by  James  and  John,  who,  in  the  times  of  their  ignor- 
ance would  have  commanded  fire  to  come  down  from 
heaven  and  consume  the  Samaritans,  because  they 
did  not  receive  the  Master.  But  he  turned,  and  said 
unto  them,  "ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye 
are  of"  Intolerance  in  Him  was  reserved  for  a  base 
and  sanctimonious  hypocrisy,  and  then  it  became  a 
virtue  to  manifest  it.  But  the  bruised  reed  he  did 
not  break,  and  the  smoking  flax  he  did  not  quench. 
And,  with  an  enlarged  heart,  he  recognized  in  every 
one  who  did  the  will  of  God,  his  mother,  his  brother, 
and  his  sister.  Let  the  charge  of  intolerance  be 
made  against  whatever  religious  systems  and  teachers 
men  will — but  let  the  life  and  doctrine  of  Him  who 
taught  his  followers  to  love  their  enemies,  and  who 
on  the  cross  prayed  for  his  murderers,  stand  clear 
of  it. 

The  same  two  great  principles  to  which  we  have 
adverted,  are  exemplified  also  in  the  character  and 
writings  of  the  apostles.  It  is  not  to  the  time  when 
they  were  beset  with  Jewish  prejudices  that  we  refer, 
but  when  they  were  in  the  very  height  of  their  noble 
career  as  Christians  and  ambassadors,  and  most  of  all 
under  the  influence  of  the  truth.  Look  at  John, — 
Boanerges,  the  son  of  thunder, — him  who  would 
have  brought  down  fire  on  the  Samaritans.  He  has 
lost  none  of  his  zeal  for  the  truth.     "  If  there  come 


432  RELIGIOUS   IXTOLERANCE. 

any  unto  you,  and  bring  not  tMs  doctrine,  receive 
him  not  into  your  house,  neither  bid  him.  God  speed." 
But  how  deeply  is  he  imbued  with  the  kindly  and 
tolerant  spirit  of  that  truth,  "We  know  that'  we 
have  passed  from  death  to  life,  because  we  love  the 
brethren."  Look  at  Paul,  once  a  persecutor  and 
injurious.  In  him  were  combined  uncompromising 
attachment  to  great  truth,  and  forbearance  to  all  who 
held  it,  though  differing  on  other  matters.  He  who 
withstood  Peter  to  the  face,  because  the  truth  was 
likely  to  suffer  through  his  dissimulation,  became  all 
things  to  all  men  in  order  that  he  might  win  some. 
It  would  be  a  difficult  task  for  any  man  to  find  a 
single  precept  or  doctrine  in  the  apostolical  epistles, 
or  anything  in  the  conduct  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves after  they  had  been  enlightened,  on  which  to 
fasten  the  charge  of  intolerance,  unless  he  confound 
with  it  an  enlightened  attachment  to  the  truth  itself 
And  there  are  thousands  of  Christians,  in  every  age, 
whose  temper  and  conduct,  being  under  the  influence 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  give  the  lie  to  the  in- 
sinuation that  Christianity  fosters  narrow-mindedness, 
and  intolerance.  It  is  a  petty,  unmanly,  dishonest 
way  of  attacking  the  Gospel,  to  father  upon  it  all  the 
weaknesses  and  vices  of  its  professors ;  when  in  the 
character  of  its  author,  and  both  in  its  letter  and 
spirit,  it  rebukes  intolerance  of  every  shape.  Happy 
is  it  that  amid  the  false  imputations  thrown  on  Chris- 
tianity by  its  enemies,  and  the  unfavorable  repre- 
sentation often  given  of  it  by  being  associated  with 
the  imperfections  and  errors  of  its  professed  friends, 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  433 

we  can  contemplate  its  native  undiminislied  granclenr 
in  the  sacred  page,  and  see  its  lioly  benignant  in- 
fluence manifested  in  so  many  of  its  true  disciples,  as 
warrant  us  to  say  tliat  the  Gospel  has  as  much  com- 
munion with  intolerance  as  light  has  with  darkness. 

But,  although  the  religion  of  Christ  disowns  all 
connection  with  the  narrowness  and  bigotry  of  its 
avowed  disciples,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that,  in  con- 
sequence of  such  associations,  it  has  presented  a  re- 
pulsive aspect  to  many  minds.  We  mean,  therefore, 
to  notice  some  of  the  forms  of  religious  intolerance, 
which  have  thrown  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  a 
pure  and  benignant  Christianity. 

1.  The  first  to  which  we  advert,  is, — the  jealousy 
ivith  wliicli  some  religious  men  regard  the  advancement 
of  science.  The  Book  of  nature  and  the  book  of  revela- 
tion have  the  same  Author,  and,  when  rightly  inter- 
preted, both  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  show  forth 
his  handiwork.  There  may  be  apparent  discrepancies 
between  them,  but  there  can  be  no  real  contradic- 
tions; and,  in  proportion  as  scientific  research  is 
prosecuted  in  a  right  spirit,  and  true  principles  of 
interpretation  are  applied  to  the  scriptural  page,  will 
the  harmony  be  manifested.  The  one,  however,  has 
often  been  arrayed  against  the  other,  to  the  injury  of 
the  truth  of  God.  We  refer,  not  so  much  to  the 
vaunts  of  infidels  that  the  age  of  philosophical  illu- 
mination and  scientific  discovery  would  eclipse  and 
falsify  the  scriptural  revelation,  or  to  the  fact  that 
some  philosophers  have,  unhappily,  been  unbelievers 
in  the  sacred  record — circumstances  which  have  had 

28 


434  RELIGIOUS    INTOLERANCE, 

considerable  influence  in  prejudicing  some  good, 
though  not  great  men,  against  such  pursuits — as  to 
the  fact  that  Christians  themselves,  in  many  cases, 
have  countenanced  the  notion  that  there  is  real  enmity 
between  them. 

It  was  once  a  dogma  both  of  philosophy  and  of  the 
church,  that  the  earth  is  the  greatest  body  in  the  uni- 
verse, placed  immovable  in  its  centre,  and  that  all 
the  heavenly  bodies  were  created  solely  for  its  use. 
The  influence  of  Aristotle  riveted  the  notion  of  the 
earth's  immobility  on  men's  minds  for  ages,  and  the 
whole  body  of  the  faithful  received  it  as  the  very  doc- 
trine of  the  Bible.  At  length  when  the  Aristotelian 
dogmas  respecting  motion  were  overturned  by  the 
discoveries  of  Copernicus,  Kepler,  and  Galileo, — and 
the  motion  of  the  earth  round  the  sun,  as  the  centre 
of  the  planetary  system,  was,  on  demonstrable  evi- 
dence, asserted, — science  and  religion  were  set  against 
each  other,  and  what  is  now  universally  regarded  as 
a  true  astronomy,  was  denounced  as  inconsistent  with 
the  Christian  faith.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Vati- 
can thundered  its  anathemas  against  those  who  held 
the  Copernican  doctrine,  and  that  the  famous  Galileo 
was  sent  to  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition  for  think- 
ing, as  Milton  says,  in  astronomy  otherwise  than  the 
Franciscan  and  Dominican  licensers  thought.  And 
even  men  of  learning  and  piety  were  to  be  found 
sometime  afterward  in  the  Reformed  Church,  who 
maintained  it  to  be  antiscriptural  to  believe  other- 
wise than  that  the  earth  is  at  rest,  and  that  the  sun 
performs   a  daily  revolution    around   it.      David,  the 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  435 

man  inspired  of  God,  was  boldly  set  against  tlie  phi- 
losopher Galileo ;  and  because  the  former  sung  "  God 
hath  established  the  earth  upon  its  foundations:  it 
shall  not  be  moved  forever  and  ever — The  going 
forth  of  the  sun  is  from  the  end  of  the  heaven  and  his 
circuit  unto  the  ends  of  it,"  and  the  latter  could  not 
but  maintain,  on  the  ground  of  sure  evidence,  that 
the  earth  moved, — philosophy  was  placed  under  the 
ban,  and  stigmatized  as  heretical  and  infidel. 

The  famous  rule  of  interpretation,  so  fully  adopted 
by  expositors  in  modern  times,  that  the  sacred  winters 
speak  of  natural  objects,  according  to  the  popular 
mode  of  comprehending  them,  "ex  veritate  optica  non 
'pliyaica^''  as  Eonsenmiiller  says, — a  rule  which  Galileo 
himself,  who  held  both  by  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures 
and  the  truth  of  the  new  philosophy,  seems  clearly  to 
have  understood — was  little  thought  of,  or  generally 
repudiated  by  divines  as  an  example  of  wresting  the 
Scriptures  from  their  plain  and  obvious  meaning. 
The  persecuted  philosopher  could  have  told  them 
that,  as  the  sacred  writers,  in  accommodating  their 
language  to  the  wants  and  capacities  of  men,  speak 
of  God  Himself  under  the  semblance  of  human  prop- 
erties ;  so  do  they,  in  speaking  of  His  works,  adopt 
those  popular  forms  of  speech  which  could  readily  be 
comprehended.^  But  the  church,  intellectually,  as 
well  as  in  other  respects,  was  intolerant.  The  phi- 
losophy of  nature,  however  clearly  established  on  fact, 
must  bend  to  men's  narrow  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture. It  refused  to  do  so.  The  philosopher,  after 
*  Dr.  Smith's  Scriptures  and  Geology,  p.  192,  (4th  editioE*) 


436  EELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

his  liumiliating  recantation,  rose  from  his  knees, 
stamped  his  foot  on  the  ground,  and  exclaimed,  ^'It 
moves  after  all!"  A  perpetual  imprisonment  was  the 
penalty ;  and  that  very  astronomy  which  gives  us  such 
enlarged  conceptions  of  the  God  of  nature  and  of 
grace,  and  which  we  regard  as  in  perfect  harmony 
with  scriptural  truth,  had,  for  years  after  the  time  of 
Galileo,  to  bear  the  brand  of  heresy.  That  many  of 
the  philosophical  minds  of  that  age  were  strengthened 
in  their  secret  opposition  to  Christianity,  by  such  a 
course  of  intolerance  we  may  well  believe,  when  we 
consider  how  much  it  is  appealed  to  by  the  enemies 
of  revelation,  and  how  a  similar,  though  less  fierce 
mode  of  intolerance,  affects  some  minds  in  our  own 
day. 

The  once  apparent  inconsistency  between  astron- 
omy and  revelation  has  vanished;  the  globularity 
and  mobility  of  the  earth  are  no  longer  viewed  by 
the  enlightened  friends  of  Scripture  as  in  conflict 
with  its  statements;  and  they  can  view  the  march 
of  that  sublime  society  not  only  without  jealousy 
of  any  injury  accruing  thereby  to  Christianity,  but 
with  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  it  contribute  to  en- 
large our  conceptions  of  Him  who  is  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  and  the  Upholder  of  all  things.  The 
application  of  a  right  principle  of  scriptural  inter- 
pretation harmonizes  the  language  of  the  Bible 
with  the  true  system  of  the  universe;  just  as  the 
discoveries  of  the  microscope,  evincing  as  they  do 
the  care  of  the  Almighty  for  the  little  as  well  as 
the   great,  ward   off  the   objections   which   infidelity 


RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE.  437 

has  drawn  from  the  discoveries  of  the  telescope,  on 
the  ground  that  the  magnitude  of  the  creation  is 
opposed  to  the  belief  that  our  little  earth  has  had 
concentrated  upon  it  so  much  of  the  Divine  regards 
as  is  implied  in  the  scheme  of  redemption.  But  if 
the  elder  science  of  astronomy  has  been  cleared  of 
the  stigma  of  being  opposed  to  religion,  the  younger 
science  of  geology  has  incurred  the  reproach,  and  still 
labors,  in  some  measure,  under  it. 

Geology  has  secured  its  place  among  the  inductive 
sciences;  and,  "in  the  magnitude  and  sublimity 
of  the  objects  of  which  it  treats,  undoubtedly  ranks 
in  the  scale  of  the  sciences,  next  to  astronomj^"^ 
It  is  a  fixed  principle  of  this  science, — which  ex- 
tended observations  are  constantly  strengthening, 
and  in  reference  to  which  great  unanimity  prevails 
among  geologists, — that  the  materials  of  which  this 
globe  is  composed  is  of  very  high  antiquity,  and 
date  far  beyond  the  six  thousand  years  which  are 
the  commonly-assigned  age  of  the  earth.  This  is 
no  mere  hypothesis.  Physical  phenomena,  which 
lie  patent  to  the  eye  of  every  observer,  prove  that 
our  planet  has  passed  through  several  different  states, 
separated  from  each  other  by  immense  intervals  of 
time,  long  before  man,  or  any  of  the  other  creatures 
now  existing,  had  been  created.  Several  miles  of 
strata  upon  strata  have  been  carefully  examined  by 
scientific  men  of  the  first  eminence,  and  they  are 
agreed,  upon  irresistible  evidence,  in  affirming,  that 
the  formation  even  of  those  stratified  beds  which 
'  Herschell's  Discourse  on  Natural  Philosophy,  p.  287. 


438  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

are   nearest   the   surface   must  have  taken  periods  of 
time  which  carry  us  immeasurably  beyond  the  com- 
monly-received date  of  the  creation.     The  facts  that 
no   remains   of  the  human   species  have  been  found 
in  any  of  the  regular  geological  deposits,  that  theso 
deposits  bear  indubitable  marks  of  having   occupied 
vast  ages  in   their   formation,  and  that  the  tempera- 
ture  of  the   globe  during   the   processes   must  ha\o 
been  such  as  that  man  could  not  then  have  existed, 
prove  the  antiquity  of  the  globe  to  be  so  great  as 
that,  in  comparison,  man's  stay  upon  it  dwindles  into 
an   insignificant   point   of  time.     This  is  one   of  the 
grand   conclusions   of    geology,  carefully    and   legiti- 
mately drawn  from  the  records  contained  in  the  bosom 
of  the   earth,  and   a  conclusion  which  nothing  what- 
ever can  falsify.     "No  geologist  worthy  of  the  name/" 
says  Mr.  Hugh  Miller,  "  began  with  the  belief  of  the 
antiquity  of  the  earth,  and  then  set  himself  to  square 
geological  phenomena  with  its   requirements.      It   is 
a  deduction,  a  result; — ^not  the  starting  assumption, 
or   given   sum,    in   a  process   of  calculation,   but   its 
ultimate  finding  or  answer."^     Men  of  sceptical  prin- 
ciples have  arrayed  this  conclusion  against  Scripture 
on  the  one  hand,  and  some  men  of  piety  have  arrayed 
Scripture  against  it  on  the  other.     It  is  with  the  latter 
that  we  have  at  present  to  do. 

That  there  is  an  apparent  discrepancy  between  the 
teachings  of  geology  and  the  teachings  of  the  Bible 
in  this  case  must  be  admitted;  and  that  something 
like  alarm  should  at  first  have  been  x^roduced  thereby, 

'  Footprints,  p.  2G5. 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERAKCE.  439 

in  serious  minds,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  No 
truth  appears  all  at  once  full-orbed  and  complete. 
Some  of  the  noblest  ideas  of  science  and  philosophy, 
that  are  now  as  the  sun  shining  in  its  strength, 
seemed,  at  their  early  dawning,  to  conflict  with 
Christianity,  because  opposed  to  some  of  the  popular 
but  mistaken  interpretations  of  the  sacred  record. 
Cowper  had  something  like  an  excuse  in  his  day, 
which  he  would  not  have  had  now,  in  saying, 

"  Some  drill  and  bore 
The  solid  earth,  and  from  the  strata  there 
Extract  a  register,  by  which  we  learn, 
That  he  who  made  it,  and  revealed  its  date 
To  Moses,  was  mistaken  in  its  age." 

It  is  unfortunate,  however,  that  such  jealousy 
should  exist;  for  believing,  as  such  men  must  do, 
that  the  records  of  nature  and  the  records  of  revela- 
tion have  the  same  Author,  they  might  be  assured 
that  the  true  interpretation  of  the  one  could  never 
really  be  at  variance  with  the  true  interpretation  of 
the  other.  Had  Moses,  the  man  of  God,  anywhere 
asserted  that  the  materials  of  which  this  globe  is 
composed  were  called  into  being  a  few  thousand 
years  ago,  had  the  inspired  historian  identified  the 
original  act  of  forming  the  world  out  of  nothing 
with  the  six  days  of  the  adamic  creation,  science 
and  revelation  would  then  have  been  at  open  war, 
and  the  consequences  would  have  been  serious. 
Geologists  can  no  more  renounce  their  belief  in  the 
great  antiquity  of  the  earth,  than  the  followers  of 
Copernicus   can   give   up   the   creed   that    the    earth 


440  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

moves,  and  that  the  sun  is  in  the  centre  cf  the 
planetary  system.  The  convictions  in  the  one  case, 
as  well  as  in  the  other,  are  consequents — not  antece- 
dents. Moses  nowhere  asserts  that  the  chronology 
is  different.  The  variance  between  his  record  and 
the  geological  evidence  is  only  apparent,  not  real; 
it  vanishes  before  a  sound  principle  of  scriptural  in- 
terpretation. What  we  complain  of,  however,  is,  that 
some  good  men  disown  the  harmonizing  principle, 
and,  to  the  injury  of  Christianity,  cling  doggedly 
to  their  narrow  principle  of  interpretation,  and  de- 
nounce, as  heretical  and  infidel,  one  of  the  most 
legitimate  conclusions  of  science.  Let  it  once  be 
admitted  that  the  first  sentence  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis  stands  as  a  distinct  and  independent  propo- 
sition, that  it  refers  to  an  undefined  antiquity  when 
the  Almighty  created  the  materials  of  the  universe 
out  of  nothing,  and  then,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  remarks, 
"  we  can  allow  geology  the  amplest  time  for  its  various 
revolutions  without  infringing  even  on  the  literalities 
of  the  Mosaic  record.'"  This  principle  of  interpre- 
tation is  no  novelty,  no  mere  bending  of  the  sense 
of  the  Scripture  so  as  to  meet  the  claims  of  a  young 
science.  It  is  to  be  found  in  many  of  the  ancient 
Christian  writers,  it  vfas  supported  by  some  of  the 
most  learned  and  pious  men  in  more  modern  times, 
but  who  lived  before  geology  had  obtained  a  place 
among  the  inductive  sciences,  and  it  is  becoming 
more  and  more  generally  acceptable  among  judicious 
and  devout  expositors  of  Scripture  in  our  own  day. 

'  Daily  Scripture  Readings,  vol.  i.,  p.  1. 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  .  441 

But  the  outcry  has  been  heard,  here  and  there,  from 
the  pulpit  and  the  religious  press,  that  the  geological 
doctrines  are  antiscriptural.  The  *  Mosaical  and 
Mineral  geologies  have  been  compared  and  con- 
trasted, as  if  they  were  actually  conflicting ;  and  the 
most  sweeping  charges  of  atheism,  and  the  like, 
have  been  made  against  a  science  that  appeals  to 
palpable  evidence  in  support  of  its  conclusion  that 
the  earth  is  greatly  older  than  the  date  commonly 
assigned  to  it.^  It  is  but  lately  that  a  correspondent, 
in  a  respectable  public  journal,  said,  "  I  hold  by  my 
antiquated  tenets,  that  our  world,  nay,  the  whole 
material  universe,  was  created  about  six  or  seven 
thousand  years  ago,  and  that  in  a  state  of  physical 
excellence  of  which  we  have  in  our  present  fallen 
world  only  the  'vestiges  of  creation.'"  The  holders 
of  such  an  opinion,  we  hope,  in  all  charity,  are  rapidly 
diminishing. 

But  who  can  estimate  the  amount  of  injury  thus 
unintentionally  done  to  the  interests  of  Christianity, 
and  the  advantage  afforded  to  the  ranks  of  infi- 
delity. It  unfortunately  happens  that  not  a  few 
scientific  men  have,  independently  altogether  of  such 
representations,  no  favorable  prepossessions  for  the 
Christian  religion,  and  are  criminally  strangers  to  the 
strength  of  its  evidences  and  the  grandeur  of  its 
truths.  And  surely  the  intolerance  of  which  we  are 
speaking,  is  calculated  to  strengthen  their  indifference 
or  hostility,  and  to  induce  them  to  rest  in  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  Gospel  is  either  a  cunningly-devised  fable, 
'  See  Dr.  Smith's  Scripture  and  Greology,  p.  130,  &e. 


442  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

or  a  system  inimical  to  enlightened  and  philosophical 
inquiry.     It  betrays  indeed  no  small  degree  of  intoler- 
ance on  the   part   of  some   philosophers   themselves, 
and  evinces  a  little-mindedness  altogether  unworthy 
of  them,   that   they   can   coolly   dismiss   Christianity, 
and    refuse   to   examine   its    claims,   because    it    has 
occasionally   come   before   them   associated  with   the 
weaknesses  and  prejudices  of  some  of  its  professors. 
They  are  guilty  of  acting   in  the  same  way  toward 
religion  that  the  Christian  professors,  of  whom  they 
complain,  act  toward  science ;    and  the  charge  of  in- 
tolerance,  which    they   bring    against    others,    might 
justly  be  retaliated  upon  themselves.     But  this  does 
in  nowise  weaken  the  fact  that  the  attempt,  on  the 
part  of  some,  to  limit  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  crea- 
tion to  the  date  of  six  thousand   years,  in  opposition 
to   geological   conclusions   carefully   drawn   and   now 
firmly  established;    and  the  attempt  on  the  part   of 
others,  to  put  the  mark  of  Cain  on  the  science, — have 
operated   injuriously  on   some   minds   in   fostering   a 
secret  or   open  contempt   for   Christianity.     There  is 
a   natural    indifference    in   the   human   mind   to    the 
things  which  are  revealed  of  God,  and  it  is  unfortu- 
nate when  men  can  lay  hold  of  some  of  the  repulsive 
associations  of  Christianity  as  a  pretext  for  disregard- 
ing  Christianity  itself     Revelation   cannot   be   made 
to  conflict  with  reason,  Christianity  cannot  be  arrayed 
against   science,  without   provoking    enmity    on    the 
other  side,  and  giving  an  immense  advantage  to  infi- 
delity. 

Mr.  Babbage  says,  "It  is  a  fact,  not  to  be  disputed, 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  443 

that  some  of  the  most  enlightened  minds  of  the  day, 
have  nurtured  a  secret  opposition  to  the  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  owing  to  the  intellectual  intolerance  of 
its  abettors."  And  while  it  may  be  that  some  men  of 
philosophical  pursuits  are  claiming  much  more  for 
reason  than  its  due,  or  than  it  would  be  consistent 
with  the  paramount  claims  of  Christianity  to  con- 
cede, and  that  intolerance  may  thus  be  indiscrimin- 
ately applied  to  old  prejudices  and  an  enlightened 
zeal  for  great  truth ;  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  any 
attempt  to  interdict  a  science  whose  conclusions  are 
based  not  upon  airy  speculations  but  upon  palpable 
evidence,  under  the  mistaken  notion  that  such  con- 
clusions are  hostile  to  the  Word  of  God,  must  tend 
to  make  some  men  infidels,  and  furnish  with  addi- 
tional weapons  those  who  are  so.  Let  no  tolerance 
be  shown  to  the  opinion,  prevalent  in  our  day,  that 
religion  is  a  web  of  the  mind's  own  weaving,  that  it 
has  no  fixed  and  immutable  standard  in  history,  but 
that  it  fluctuates  with  the  fluctuation  of  ages ;  for  that 
were  to  act  the  part  of  Judas  and  betray  the  very 
truth.  But  let  the  simple  assurance  that  the  Author 
of  the  material  and  mental  constitutions,  is  also  the 
Author  of  Christianity,  forever  stifle  all  jealousy,  and 
silence  all  outcry  against  the  steady  march  of  physical 
and  mental  science.  Natural  religion  and  revealed 
become  the  more  friendly  the  better  they  get  acquaint- 
ed, and  the  present  as  well  as  past  times  can  furnish 
names  alike  illustrious  for  philosophical  acquirements 
and  Christian  excellence.  One  of  these  recently  said, 
amid  an  illustrious  circle  of  his  scientific  compeers ; 


444  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

"  If  the  God  of  love  is  most  appropriately  worshipped 
in  the  Christian  temple,  the  God  of  nature  may  be 
equally  honored  in  the  temple  of  science.  Even 
from  its  lofty  minarets,  the  philosopher  may  summon 
the  faithful  to  prayer;  and  the  priest  and  the  sage 
may  exchange  altars  without  the  compromise  of  faith 
or  of  knowledge."^ 

2.  The  second  form  of  religious  intolerance  which 
we  would  notice,  as  having  an  unfavorable  bearing  on 
Christianity,  is, — the  jealousy  ivitJi  wMcJi  any  departure 
from  the  common  mode  of  address,  and  any  attempt  to 
accommodate  religious  discussions  to  the  taste,  litera- 
ture, and  philosophy  of  the  times,  are  not  unfrequently 
viewed  by  some  of  its  professed  friends.  It  is  by  no 
means  desirable  to  make  any  material  change  in 
our  usually-adopted  style  of  pulpit  preaching.  To 
the  poor  the  Gospel  is  preached.  They  form  by  far 
the  larger  portion  of  almost  every  religious  audience, 
and  to  their  intelligence  and  capacities,  should  the 
teaching  of  the  Church  be  adapted.  In  order  to  se- 
cure plainness  of  speech,  however,  it  is  no  more  ne- 
cessary to  descend  to  vulgarity  than  to  resort  to  raving 
in  order  to  be  impressive.  Lord  Brougham,  in  his 
"Dissertation  on  the  Eloquence  of  the  Ancients," 
says:  "The  best  speakers  of  all  times  have  never, 
failed  to  find  that  they  could  not  speak  too  well  or  too 
carefully  to  a  popular  assembly;  that  if  they  spoke 
their  best — the  best  they  could  address  to  the  most 
learned  and  critical  assembly,  they  were  sure  to  suc- 

'  Sli-  D.  Brewster's  Address  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
at  Edinburgh,  1850. 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  445 

ceed."  Some  of  tlie  most  popular  and  useful  preachers 
on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed,  are  those  whose  style  is 
level  to  the  comprehension  of  the  feeblest  of  the  flock, 
while  it  is  characterized  by  an  elegance  and  strength 
which  render  it  acceptable  to  the  more  refined  and  in 
tellectual.  What  is  wanting  is  a  great  prevalency  of 
what,  in  some  quarters,  extensively  prevails, — the  style 
which  blends  the  expository  and  the  sermonizing,  the 
doctrinal  and  the  practical,  the  stifihess  of  the  lecture 
having  imparted  to  it  something  of  the  graceful  loose- 
ness of  the  sermon,  and  the  declamation  of  the  ser- 
mon receiving  some  of  the  massiveness  of  the  lecture. 

If  it  be  not  desirable  to  lay  aside  the  common 
mode  of  address,  far  less  would  it  be  to  strip  the 
Gospel  of  its  peculiarities,  or  to  throw  them  into  the 
shade,  in  order  to  remove  the  offence  of  the  cross. 
The  great  preacher  who  acted,  within  legitimate 
bounds,  on  the  principle  of  becoming  all  things  to  all 
men,  acted  always  too  on  his  noble  determination  to 
know  nothing  among  men  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified.  The  field  of  divine  truth  is  extensive  in 
itself,  and  richly  diversified  in  its  objects,  but  Chiist 
is  the  sun  which  clothes  the  whole  with  light  as  with 
a  garment,  and  the  cross  is  the  seat  whence  he  sheds 
abroad  the  brightness  of  his  glory.  Over  this  wide 
field  it  behoves  the  Christian  teacher  to  conduct  his 
disciples,  and  to  make  them  acquainted  with  every 
flower  and  tree  that  grows  on  its  surface ;  but  all  his 
lessons  should  be  given  from  under  the  shadow  of 
the  cross,  and  on  whatever  subject  he  touches, 
there   should   be  a  constant  reference  to  this  as  the 


446  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

tree   of  life   whose  leaves  are  for  the  healmg  of  the 
nations. 

But  it  is  of  the  want  of  Paul's  principle  of  ac- 
commodation, acted  on  in  consistency  with  due  prom- 
inence being  given  to  the  doctrines  of  the  cross,  that 
we  complain.  He  accommodated  himself  to  the  pre- 
judices of  the  synagogue  and  of  the  market-place. 
He  closed  with  the  philosophers  in  the  Areopagus, 
and  with  the  more  unlearned  among  the  people. 
He  pursued  one  train  of  thought,  and  adopted  one 
style,  while  reasoning  with  the  Jews;  and  another 
and  different  one  when  addressing  the  Gentiles. 
And  yet,  while  thus  becoming  all  things  to  all  men, 
he  made  it  manifest  that  he  counted  all  things  but 
loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 
It  is  the  greater  prevalency  of  branching  off  from 
the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  while  holding 
fast  by  it;  and  of  throwing  the  sanctity  of  religion 
over  philosophical  researches  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  making  science  minister  to  the  illustrations 
of  religious  truth  on  the  other,  that  we  desiderate 
in  much  of  our  religious  teaching.  The  pulpit, 
being  designed  for  the  instruction  of  men  in  every  age 
in  the  things  of  God,  should  be  prepared  to  meet  the 
various  forms  of  error  which  are  ever  and  anon  thrown 
up  from  the  heart  of  society,  to  dissipate  the  illusions 
which  have  been  thrown  around  them,  and  to^show 
how  nature,  when  interpreted  aright,  yields  an  unbi- 
ased and  spontaneous  testimony  to  revelation.  Far 
be  it  that  the  lessons  of  the  pulpit  should  ever  be 
turned  into  philosophical  discussions,  into  learned  dis- 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  447 

quisitions,   or  into  a  mere  baptised   lifeless  morality. 
Of  the   former   there   has   been    more  than    enough 
in  past  ages,  and  of  the  latter  there  may  be  in  some 
quarters  too  much  still.     But,  let  it  not  be  forgotten 
that   nature  teaches    many  useful   and    pious  lessons, 
and  that  the  Bible  appeals  to  them ;  that  in  the  same 
record  we  are   admonished  to  behold   the    Lamb  of 
God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  to 
consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how  they  grow;  that 
the  inspired  cannon  contains  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon 
as  well   as   the   Psalms   of  David,    the   philosophical 
epistle  of  James  as  well  as  the  doctrinal  epistles  of 
Paul.     Let  not  God's  book  of  nature  be  treated  as 
if  its  inscriptions   had  grown  dim  and   effete   before 
the  clearer  light  of  revelation,  and,  while  irreligious 
men   would    make   the   stars   in    their   courses   fight 
against  prophets  and  apostles,  and  adduce  the  great 
"  stone  book"  as  a  witness  against  the  word  of  life ;  let 
those  who  are  set  to   teach  in  the  church  show  that 
the  records  of  the  material  creations,  of  the  heavens 
above  and  of  the  earth  beneath,  are  in  perfect  har- 
mony   with    the    statements  of   the   scriptural   page. 
There  is  the  leaven  of  a  secularist  infidelity  diffusing 
itself  among  the  masses,  and   of  a  philosophical  un- 
belief making  its  way  among  the  educated  classes,  to 
the  existence  and  influence  of  which,  many  who  wait 
upon  the  ministrations  of  the  sanctuary  are  not  entire 
strangers;    and    this    surely   warrants    an    occasional 
departure  from  the  usual  mode  of  address,  in  order 
to   strip   false   systems  of  their   pretensions,    and    to 
exhibit  by  contrast  the  glory  of  the  true.     Paul,  if  we 


448  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

mistake  not,  would  have  acted  tlius,  liad  lie  lived  in 
an  age  like  ours  so  widely  different  in  many  points 
from  his  own;  and  in  doing  so,  would  have  mani- 
fested the  harmony  of  his  two  grand  principles — 
determining  to  know  nothing  among  men  save  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified,  and  becoming  all  things  to 
all  men  in  order  that  he  might  win  some. 

Now,  it  is  in  the  jealousy  with  which  some  devoted 
teachers  of  religion  view  any  such  accommodation 
to  the  taste  and  prejudices  of  the  times,  and  in  the, 
perhaps,  still  stronger  jealousy  with  which  such  an 
occasional  departure  from  the  old  course  would  be 
received  by  multitudes  of  simple-minded  hearers,  that 
we  discover  an  influence  really  injurious  to  Chris- 
tianity. We  are  not,  let  it  be  remembered,  advocat- 
ing a  trimming  mode  of  preaching,  the  substitution 
of  a  sort  of  religious  philosophy  for  the  Gospel  itself, 
or  mere  displays  of  literary  taste,  in  order  to  captivate 
literary  men.  No.  This,  besides  proving,  as  it  ever 
has  done,  a  wretched  failure,  would  be  an  abandon- 
ment or  an  unworthy  compromise  of  the  one  great 
principle  of  Paul  to  which  we  have  adverted.  But  it 
is  the  greater  prevalency  of  the  system  which  has 
been  partially  adopted  by  some  distinguished  teachers, 
of  making  occasional  excursions  to  other  topics,  while 
habitually  expounding,  and  enforcing  the  great  doc- 
trines of  the  cross  and  of  linking  even  these  other 
topics  with  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  for  which  we 
plead.  It  is  undeniable  that  Christianity  in  the 
teaching  of  by  far  the  greater  number  of  its  devoted 
ministers,    wears   a   more   contracted    and    exclusive 


EELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  449 

aspect  than  really  belongs  to  it ;  and  that  the  stern 
refusal  to  admit  the  pulpit  to  the  age,  has  led  some 
intelligent  minds  to  cherish  unfavorable  opinions  of 
the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel.  The  jealous  exclusion 
of  almost  every  topic  from  sacred  teaching,  which  is 
not  directly  included  within  the  system  of  evangelical 
doctrine,  or  the  intolerance  shown  when  an  occasional 
excursion  is  made  beyond  the  prescribed  boundary, 
has  induced  many  to  associate  the  grand  themes  of 
the  pulpit  with  a  narrow  and  illiberal  exclusiveness 
to  which  in  themselves  these  themes  are  strangers. 
"If  the  priesthood  of  the  sanctuary,"  remarks  Dr. 
Vaughan,^  "is  to  be  a  match  for  the  priesthood  of 
letters,  the  path  of  its  labors  must  become  wider  and 
more  diversified  every  day.  Men  who  see  this  must 
give  little  heed  to  those  who  see  it  not." 

Dr.  Chalmers,  in  the  introduction  to  his  celebrated 
Astronomical  Discourses,  which  we  consider  a  good 
exemplification  of  the  two  principles  of  Paul  formerly 
adverted  to,  makes  a  remark,  in  some  measure  still 
applicable.  He  is  speaking  of  "  those  narrow  and 
intolerant  professors  who  take  an  alarm  at  the  very 
sound  and  semblance  of  philosophy;  and  feel  as  if 
there  was  an  utter  irreconcileable  antipathy  between 
its  lessons  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  soundness  and 
piety  of  the  Bible  on  the  other,"  and  adds,  "it  were 
well,  I  conceive,  for  our  cause,  that  such  persons  could 
become  a  little  more  indulgent  on  this  subject ;  that 
they  gave  up  a  portion  of  those  ancient  and  heredi- 
tary prepossessions  which  go   so    far   to   cramp   and 

'  Letter  and  Spirit,  p.  78. 
29 


450  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

entliral  them;  that  they  would  suffer  theology  to 
take  that  wide  range  of  argument  and  of  illustration 
which  belongs  to  her;  and  that,  less  sensitively 
jealous  of  any  desecration  being  brought  upon  the 
sabbath,  or  the  pulpit,  they  would  suffer  her  freely 
to  announce  all  those  truths  which  either  serve  to 
protect  Christianity  from  the  contempt  of  science; 
or  to  protect  the  teachers  of  Christianity  from  those 
invasions,  which  are  practised  both  on  the  sacredness 
of  the  office,  and  on  the  solitude  of  its  devotional  and 
intellectual  labors." 

It  is  unfortunate  that  theology,  the  grandest  of  all 
the  sciences,  should  have  been  kept  so  much  aloof 
from  the  others,  as  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  others 
have  been  kept  so  much  aloof  from  theology  ;  unfor- 
tunate it  is  that  theology  has  often  been  made  to 
look  strangely  and  jealously  on  natural  science,  as  il 
is  that  natural  science  has  often  looked  strangely  and 
jealously  on  theology.  The  two  real  friends  have 
been  made  to  cherish  silent  or  open  contempt  foi 
each  other;  and  while  the  contempt  of  science  has 
often  occasioned  the  contempt  of  theology,  the  con- 
tempt of  theology  has  often  occasioned  the  contempt 
of  science. 

3.  The  most  common  species  of  religious  intoler- 
ance, and  one  that  has  given  to  Christianity  a  more 
repulsive  aspect  than  any  other,  remains  to  be  no- 
ticed —  the  intolerance  of  different  forms,  rites,  and 
ceremonies.  The  form  of  godliness,  in  the  present 
state,  is  necessary  to  the  manifestation  and  mainten- 
ance of  its  power.     But  men  in  every  age  have  been 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  451 

prone  to  attach  that  importance  to  the  external  shape 
which  only  belongs  to  the  inner  life.  And  in  propor- 
tion to  the  exclusiveness  of  attachment  to  any  par- 
ticular form,  has  been  the  intolerance  shown  to  those 
who  differ  from  it.  Christianity  is  the  ministration 
of  the  Spirit.  Its  divine  Founder  frowned  upon  the 
formalism  and  consequent  intolerance  of  his  day. 
The  New  Testament  while  giving  no  countenance 
to  the  neglect  of  the  outward  institutions  of  religion, 
places  them  in  complete  subordination  to  piety 
itself;  and,  by  the  utter  absence  of  minute  regula- 
tions as  to  external  ceremonies,  indicates  not  only 
that  they  are  of  inferior  importance  compared  with 
the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  but  that  professing 
Christians  should  show  much  indulgence  towards 
one  another  in  reference  to  them.  The  several  sec- 
tions of  the  church  have  often  acted  as  if  the  New 
Testament  had  its  book  of  Leviticus,  and  their  in- 
dividual interpretation  could  not  possibly  be  other- 
wise than  the  right  one;  and  as  if  they  had  been 
commanded  to  punish  or  stand  aloof  from  those  who 
denied  there  was  any  such  book  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, or  who  ventured  to  adopt  another  interpretation 
of  its  meaning.  From  the  beginning  until  now, 
some  men,  pent  up  within  their  own  sacred  inclosure, 
and  being  unable  to  see  any  good  beyond,  have  been 
crying,  "the  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the 
Lord  are  v/e."  •  Their  own  Zion  has  filled  up  so  largely 
the  sphere  of  their  vision  as  to  be  looked  upon  as 
exclusively  tlie  church,  and  they  say,  with  an  implied 
disparagement   of  all   other   hills,    "our   fathers  wor- 


452  RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

shipped  in  this  mountain."  The  line  of  genealogy — 
the  chain  of  succession — has  become  so  exclusively 
sacred  in  their  estimation  as  the  channel  of  grace,  as 
to  have  blinded  their  eyes  to  an  illustrious  ancestral 
piety  elsewhere,  and  to  lead  them  to  say  with  in- 
effable complacency,  "we  have  Abraham  to  our 
father."  And  while  intolerance  has  been  manifesting 
itself  in  this  way,  under  a  pretended  zeal  for  the 
honor  of  Christianity  itself,  that  very  Christianity, 
in  the  life  of  its  great  Author,  and  in  the  pages  of 
inspiration,  has  been  rebuking  the  foul  and  wicked 
spirit,  and  calling  upon  it  to  come  out  of  the  church. 

Men  who  have  no  inclination  to  examine  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  and  to  contemplate  its  native 
grandeur  disconnected  from  the  weakness  and  in- 
tolerance of  its  professed  friends,  confound  the  one 
with  the  other.  Or  they  are  something  like  in- 
dividuals prevented  from  entering  into  a  magnificent 
castle,  and  surveying  its  beautiful  grounds,  by  the 
surly  looks  of  the  porters  that  stand  at  the  gate. 
This  intolerance,  like  an  evil  genius,  has  so  often 
accompanied  Christianity  in  its  descent  down  the 
stream  of  ages,  and  in  its  progress  through  the  world, 
leading  to  the  formation  of  conventicle  acts  and  acts 
of  uniformity,  unchurching,  anathematizing,  imprison- 
ing, and  burning  those  who  were  of  a  different  way, 
that  it  would  not  be  w^onderful  were  thousands  to 
rise  up  in  judgment,  and  say  to  the  demon  of  intoler- 
ance, "You  made  us  infidels."  Vast  multitudes,  in 
every  age,  will,  in  spite  of  all  remonstrance,  estimate 
Christianity  by  the  spirit  and  conduct  of  its  professed 


RELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE.  453 

followers.      And,  while   they  see   much   in   the   past, 
and  not  a  little  in  the  present,  of  that  temper  which, 
under  the  plea  of  religion,  would  bring  down  fire  from 
heaven  and  consume  the  Samaritans ;    or  which  mani- 
fests itself  in  a  conceited  piety,  saying,  "  Stand  by  your- 
self, come  not  near  to  me,  for  I  am  holier  than  you ;" 
their  prejudices  against  Christianity  will  strengthen, 
and  they  will  be  apt  to  confound  the  darkness  and 
the  light.     No  one,  at  all  acquainted  with  the  writings 
of  infidels,  more  especially  with  those  which  have  been 
popularized    and    diffiised    through   the    masses,  but 
must    know   that   this    species    of   religious    intoler- 
ance   is    handled    and    held    up   as   if   it   were   the 
natural  fruit- of  religion  itself     And  how  often,  in  the 
walks  of  social  intercourse,  do  we  meet  with  intellio-ent 
and    liberal-minded  men,  who   cannot   conceal    their 
disafi'ection  to  Christianity,  on  account  of  what  may 
be  called  the  church  intolerance  of  many  of  its  pro- 
fessors. 

Coleridge  has  said,  '^'  I  will  be  tolerant  of  every- 
thing else  but  every  other  man's  intolerance."  Relig- 
ious intolerance  is  the  most  odious  and  insufferable 
of  all.  The  spirit  of  humanity,  if  it  be  not  enslaved, 
rises  up  against  it;  and  on  many  minds  who  have 
not  learned  to  distinguish  between  the  gentleness  of 
Christ  and  the  bitterness  of  some  professing  Chris- 
tians, such  is  its  influence  as  to  involve  in  one  feeling 
of  disgust  everything  in  the  shape  and  name  of 
Christianity.  What  an  inconceivably  paltry,  trouble- 
some, intolerant  thing,  must  Christianity  be  in  the 
eyes  of  some  men,  who  form  their  notions  of  it  from 


454  EELIGIOUS   INTOLERANCE. 

some  portions  of  Cliurch  History,  or  from  those  wlic 
stickle  for  caste,  vestments,  and  ceremonies,  as  if 
the  life  of  genuine  religion  was  bound  up  in  thcui. 
And  so  much  fiery  zeal  has  been  manifested,  by  large 
bodies  of  professed  Christians  in  every  age,  for  the 
mere  wood,  hay,  and  stubble,  that  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at,  if  those  who  were  indisposed  to  appeal 
to  the  Bible,  should  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  was  nothing  else  in  religion  worth  contending 
for.  The  church  in  every  age  has  had  its  Hamans 
who  could  not  bear  to  see  Mordecai  sitting  at  the 
gate.  There  have  been  multitudes  of  great  and  petty 
Lauds  who  would  rather  have  had  the  plague  in  their 
parishes  than  religious  dissent,  and  who  would  sooner 
have  tolerated  drunkenness  and  uncleanness  than 
the  unpardonable  sin  of  Puritanism  and  Noncon- 
formity. The  imprisonment  of  John  Bunyan  and 
thousands  of  men  of  less  note,  because  they  would 
pray  without  a  common  prayer-book ;  the  outrage  of 
refusing  Christian  burial  to  those  who  had  not  been 
baptized  within  the  pale  of  a  particular  communion ; 
the  denial  of  the  validity  of  any  ordination,  but  this 
particular  one,  or  that  particular  one;  the  jealousy 
sometimes  shown  toward  lay  preaching,  not  lest  error 
should  be  propagated,  but  lest  the  priest's  office 
should  be  invaded ;  and  the  many  ways  in  which  the 
old  proposition  is  openly  expressed,  or  half-concealed, 
"out  of  our  church,  no  salvation;"  these,  which  are 
but  the  intolerances  of  erring,  deluded,  or  proud 
men,  have  done  incalculable  injuries  to  that  benignant 
work  which  is  of  God.     "  The  prevalence  of  so  in- 


RELIGIOUS    INTOLERANCE,  455 

tolerant  a  theory,"  says  Isaac  Taylor,  when  speaking 
of  tractarianism,  "  and  the  bold  avowal  of  it  by  those 
who  are  regarded  as  the  best-informed  expounders  of 
Christianity,  silently  but  extensively,  operates  to  drive 
cultured  and  ingenuous  minds  into  deism  or  atheism. 
What  is  this  Christianity,  say  such,  which,  while  pro- 
fessing to  be  a  religion,  not  of  bondage  and  forms, 
but  of  truth  and  love,  nevertheless  impels  its  adher- 
ents to  violate  all  charity  on  the  precarious  ground 
of  an  elaborate  hypothesis!"^ 

The  disciples  may  forbid  a  man  to  cast  out  demons 
in  the  name  of  Jesus,  because  he  follows  not  with 
them.  But  the  Lord,,  instead  of  sanctioning  their 
conduct,  rebukes  them.  It  is  enough  for  Him  that 
the  man  is  doing  his  work,  and  doing  it  in  his  name. 
"Such  a  church,  or  such  a  community,"  says  Vinet, 
"believes  that  to  follow  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  necessary 
to  be  with  it,  form  a  part  of  its  organization,  join  the 
society  of  which  it  is  composed,  espouse  its  interests, 
and  hang  out  its  banner."'  The  Lord  rebukes  such 
a  spirit.  He  looks  over  all  the  hedge  work  of  forms 
and  ceremonies  within  which  his  professed  followers 
have  too  often  enclosed  themselves,  and  says,  "he 
that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us."  Let  not  Christianity, 
then,  be  made  responsible  for  what  it  repudiates  ;  but 
let  it  not  be  denied  that  an  intolerance  of  different 
external  forms  and  rites,  on  the  part  of  churches,  has 
been  prejudical  to  the  Gospel  and  strengthening  to 
infidelity. 

Spiritual  Christianity,  p.  99.       ^  Vinet's  Vital  Christianity,  p.  223. 


CHAPTER  YI. 


DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Christ's  Church  really  one — Scriptural  illustrations  of  this — A  truth 
often  lost  sight  of — Disjointed  state  of  the  Church  a  common 
refuge  of  infidelity — An  argument  easily  applied — Its  influence 
on  a  man  whose  religious  knowledge  is  merely  superficial,  and 
who  has  but  a  very  lingering  attachment  to  Christianity — The 
sophism  repelled  by  a  man  of  an  opposite  character — The  refuge, 
however,  remains — Deistical  writers  used  it — A  source  of  per- 
plexity to  the  weak  and  inquiring,  and  an  auxiliary  to  the  hostile 
— Remark  of  Robert  Hall — Unity  not  to  be  confounded  with 
uniformity — Romish  unity  a  huge  fiction — Remark  of  Whately — 
Scriptural  unity  consistent  with  minor  difference — Remark  of 
Sir  James  Stephen — Mr.  Ruskin's  "  Notes" — Difference  between 
moral  and  mathematical  certainty — Voltaire — Macaulay's  re- 
marks on  Gladstone — Visible  unanimity  to  be  aimed  at — Saviour's 
Prayer — Twofold  influence  of  Christian  unity— The  exhibition 
of  unity  would  tell  mightily  as  a  proof  of  the  divinity  of  Chris- 
tianity— Instanced  in  the  early  Church — The  consequent  unity 
of  action  would  tell  powerfully  on  successful  propagation  of 
Christianity — Primitive  Church  had  unity  of  action  so  long  as  it 
had  unity  of  exhibition — Noble  things  done  since  by  combined 
Christian  efibrt — God,  in  the  signs  of  the  times,  is  calling  upon 
Christians  to  manifest  their  unity. 

The  Church  of  Christ,  amid  all  outward  diversities 
and  conflicting  interests,  is  really  one.  What  Cy- 
prian, one  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Fathers, 
said,  with  a  too  partial,  if  not  an  exclusive  reference, 
to  the  existing  church,  is  true  of  the  great  company 


DISUNION    OF   THE   CHURCH.  457 

of  the  faithful,  composed  of  men  in  all  ages  and 
lands,  who  hold  the  Head,  even  Christ: — "The 
church  is  one,  which  by  reason  of  its  fecundity,  is 
extended  into  a  multitude,  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  rays  of  the  sun,  how'ever  numerous,  constitute 
but  one  light;  and  the  branches  of  a  tree,  however 
many,  are  attached  to  one  trunk,  which  is  supported 
by  its  tenacious  root;  and  when  various  rivers  flow 
from  the  same  fountain,  though  number  is  diffused 
by  the  redundant  supply  of  waters,  unity  is  preserved 
in  their  origin."^  This  essential  characteristic  of 
the  Christian  community  is  illustrated  by  several 
comparisons  in  Scripture.  The  church  is  represented 
as  a  building  of  which  the  Lord  Jesus  is  the  founda- 
tion, and  believers  in  every  place  and  age  are  living 
stones  united  to  Him  and  to  each  other,  and  built 
up  a  spiritual  house.  It  is  spoken  of  as  one  fold 
under  the  care  of  the  one  shepherd,  as  a  whole 
family  or  brotherhood  named  after  the  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and,  not  to  multiply  illustra- 
tions, it  is  described  as  one  body,  all  genuine 
believers  holding  the  same  Head,  and  every  one 
members  one  of  another.  Yet  the  church,  in  many 
of  its  branches,  has  often  lost  sight  of  this  delightful 
truth,  and  acted  a  part  directly  contrary  to  its 
influence.  The  harmony  has  been  broken,  brethren 
have  set  brethren  at  nought,  schisms  have  been 
made  in  the  body,  and  member  has  been  saying 
unto  member,  "I  have  no  need  of  thee."  The  faithful 
have  been  ranging  themselves  under  different  leaders, 

'  Hall's  Terms  of  Communion. 


458      .  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

some  saying  we  are  of  Paul,  others,  we  are  of  Apol- 
los,  others,  we  are  of  Cephas;  while  their  common 
Lord  and  Saviour  has  been  saying  unto  them,  "One 
is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren." 

The  disjointed  and  disorderly  state  of  the  church 
has  been  notoriously  one  of  the  most  common 
refuges  of  infidelity.  At  the  beginning,  the  lovely 
manifestations  of  its  inward  unity  often  drew  the 
unwilling  homage  from  the  world,  "  Behold  how 
these  Christians  love  one  another!"  And  we  may 
easily  conceive  how  influential  must  have  been  the 
exhibition  of  Christian  unity  in  disarming  the  pre- 
judices and  overcoming  the  hostility  of  those  without. 
To  see  vast  multitudes  of  individuals,  men  of  every 
kindred  and  tongue,  and  nation  and  people,  separated 
from  each  other  by  country  and  language,  by  a 
diversity  of  station  and  interests,  all  glorying  in 
the  same  cross,  bound  by  the  bands  of  love  into  one. 
Christian  brotherhood,  '  and  harmoniously  engaged 
in  doing  the  greatest  good  to  the  world,  must,  in 
many  cases,  have  been  instrumental  in  producing 
the  conviction  that  Christianity  is  of  God.  "  It  was 
this,  indeed,"  remarks  Neander,  "which,  in  a  cold 
and  selfish  age,  struck  the  pagans  with  wonder." 
But  the  picture  has  been  reversed.  Modern  Chris- 
tendom has  too  often  presented  the  unseemly  spec- 
tacle of  the  several  companies  of  the  Prince  of  Peace 
contending  against  each  other,  instead  of  uniting 
their  strength  and  advancing  against  the  common 
foe.  The  unbelieving  world  has  meanwhile  looked 
on,  and    said,  with    a  more  deeply-rooted   prejudice, 


DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH.  459 

"  See  how  these  Christians  are  divided,  how  they  hate 
and  oppose  each  other.  This  is  your  boasted  Chris- 
tianity, and  these  are  the  followers  of  Him  whom 
they  call  meek  and  lowly  of  heart!" 

The  argument  against  the  Gospel,  derived  from 
the  divisions  and  discords  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity, is  a  very  popular  one.  It  lies  upon  the 
surface  of  things,  requiring  no  great  grasp  of  com- 
prehension either  on  the  part  of  him  who  takes  it 
up  and  applies  it,  or  on  the  part  of  him  who  receives 
it.  There  are  multitudes,  whose  natural  aversion 
to  Christianity  would  fail  to  manifest  itself  openly 
under  the  pressure  of  abstract  reasoning,  who  will 
be  drawn  out  to  an  avowed  unbelief,  by  the  use  of 
popular  sophisms,  and  an  appeal  to  those  palpable 
facts  which  are  unhappily  furnished  by  the  divided 
state  of  the  Christian  world.  Disunion  among  the 
adherents  of  any  system  is  a  weapon  put  into  the 
hands  of  opponents,  which  they  readily  point  against 
the  system  itself  And  the  weapon  flies  the  swifter 
toward  the  mark,  according  as  the  pretensions  of  the 
system  and  the  conduct  of  its  professors  are  at  vari- 
ance. With  what  a  degree  of  self-elation  then,  must 
many  an  infidel,  who  had  neither  the  honesty  nor 
the  inclination  to  examine  Christianity,  have  looked 
upon  the  sectarianism  and  contention  of  the  church. 
And  how  impregnable  must  he  have  felt  his  position, 
when  encountering  a  man  somewhat  like-minded 
with  himself,  only  retaining  the  shadow  of  a  here- 
ditary reverence  for  Christianity,  but  as  little  dis- 
posed to  imitate  the  noble  Bereans  in  searching  the 


460  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Scriptures  to  see  whether  or  not  these  things  are  so. 
He  would  have  at  hand  a  number  of  texts  in  which 
the  character  and  pretensions  of  the  Gospel  are  ex- 
pressed or  implied,  and,  with  a  view  of  falsifying 
these  he  would  appeal  to  the  temper  and  conduct  of 
the  adherents  of  the  Gospel,  place  the  one  in  conflict 
with  the  other;  and,  as  if  it  were  indisputable  that 
the  temper  was  the  genuine  influence  of  Christianity, 
endeavor  to  fix  upon  the  system  the  brand  of  im- 
posture. He  would  need  only  to  lay  hold  of  the 
song,  so  descriptive  of  the  Gospel,  which  was  sung 
by  the  angels  over  the  plains  of  Bethlehem,  and  then 
making  his  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  church,  and 
to  the  actual  state  of  some  portions  of  the  Christian 
world,  complacently  ask,  "Where  is  glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  and  on.  earth  peace,  good  w^ill  toward 
men  ?"  The  appeal  would  not  be  without  its  influence 
on  the  mind  of  a  man  who  had  no  experimental  knowl- 
edge of  the  peaceful  tendency  of  the  Gospel,  whose 
acquaintance  with  the  state  of  the  Christian  world 
was  of  the  most  superficial  character,  and  whose 
lingering  attachment  to  Christianity  was  like  the 
last  sere  leaf  on  a  tree  ready  to  be  carried  off  by  the 
next  wind  that  blew. 

An  individual  whose  acquaintance  with  Christian 
truth  was  enlightened,  deep,  and  experimental,  and 
whose  knowledge  of  the  Christian  community  extend- 
ed to  other  facts  than  external  divisions  and  imper- 
fections, could  withstand  the  appeal  and  repel  the 
sophism.  He  could  say  to  the  infidel  pleader,  "These 
are  not    all   the    facts  of    the  case.     Your   argument 


DISUNION    OF    THE    CHCKCH.  461 

is  a  one-sided  one.  You  have  gone  to  the  bleak  and 
wintry  side  of  the  hill,  and  have  come  away  with  the 
notion  that  all  around  is  gloomy  and  sterile,  whereas 
the  other  slope  is  clothed  to  the  top  with  verdure,  and 
on  it  the  sun  is  brightly  shining.  You  have  raked  up 
the  divisions  and  contentions  of  the  church,  but  you 
have  not  told  us  of  the  times  of  her  unity  and  valiant 
contendings  for  the  truth.  And  not  only  so,  but  you 
have  confounded  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  with 
Christianity  itself,  the  accidental  with  the  essential, 
the  work  of  man  with  the  work  of  God.  The  divis- 
ions, of  which  you  make  so  much,  are  to  be  deplored, 
but  they  are  not  unforeseen  obstacles  thwarting  the 
march  of  Christianity;  on  the  contrary,  the  Christian 
record  foretold  them,  Christianity  itself  overcomes 
them,  and  eventually  makes  them  swell  the  train 
of  her  triumph.  The  church,  amid  all  outward 
diversities,  is  verily  one;  and  when  the  storms  have 
been  hushed,  and  the  dark  clouds'  have  passed  away, 
the  world  will  see  the  true  vine,  and,  clustering  on 
either  side  of  it — united  by  a  common  bond,  pervaded 
by  a  common  principle  of  life,  and  bearing  the  same 
manner  of  fruits — a  goodly  array  of  living  branches. 

But  this  mode  of  stating  the  case,  however  just  and 
true,  and  whatever  might  be  its  weight  on  the  mind 
of  an  anxious  inquirer,  would  not  prevail  with  the 
man  whose  tendencies  were  in  an  opposite  direction. 
There  is  the  palpable  fact  of  a  disjointed  and  divided 
church  standing  before  him,  there  are  schisms  in  the 
kingdom  that  is  declared  to  be  one,  there  is  the  sound 
of  discordant  voices  and  conflicting   interests  among 


462  DISUNION    OP    THE    CHURCH. 

the  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  And  so  long  as 
these  excrescenses  of  the  religious  life  are  manifested, 
and  men  are  to  be  found  who  will  persist  in  forming 
their  notions  of  Christianity,  not  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, but  from  the  imperfections  and  inconsistencies 
of  its  followers,  so  long  will  indifference  and  infidelity 
have  a  refuge  in  the  sectarianism  and  contentions  of 
the  Christian  world.  We  may  get  behind  the  refuge 
and  endeavor  to  push  the  man  from  it,  we  may  tell 
him  that  he  has  mistaken  a  mud-shed  for  a  strong 
tower,  we  may  cry  out  against  his  unfairness  and 
little-mindedness  in  confounding  what  is  accidental 
with  what  is  essential,  and  in  suffering  himself  to  be 
prejudiced  against  a  revelation  from  heaven  because 
of  the  contendings  of  its  professed  friends.  We  may 
carry  the  point  farther,  and  charge  his  hostility,  as 
the  Saviour  himself  has  done,  on  a  deep-rooted 
aversion  of  mind  and  heart  to  the  high  and  holy 
principles,  the  strict  and  uncompromising  require- 
ments of  the  Gospel  itself  But,  after  having  done  all 
this,  the  refuge,  such  as  it  is,  remains;  and  the  man 
still  resorts  to  it  in  the  way  of  justifying  and  con- 
firming his  aversion  to  the  Gospel  truth.  We  might 
be  almost  sure  too,  that,  in  the  case  of  many,  were  this 
refuge  taken  away,  others  would  be  resorted  to,  and 
their  prejudices  against  Christianity  be  not  a  whit 
lessened.  But  this  does  not  affect  the  fact,  that  the 
visible  disunion  of  the  Christian  church  has  been  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  world,  and  has  strengthened 
the  hands  of  the  infidel. 

The   deistical   writers,    from"  Lord    Herbert   down- 


DISUNION    OF   THE    CHUR€H.  463 

wards,  have  availed  themselves,  with  much  disingen- 
uousness  indeed,  of  this  weapon  against  the  Chris- 
tian cause;  and  have  fallaciously,  yet  with  some 
plausibility,  argued,  that  a  system  which  admitted  of 
such  conflicting  opinions  among  its  adherents,  could 
possess  nothing  like  certainty ;  and  that  a  churcli 
professedly  one  and  yet  split  into  a  number  of  isolated 
or  opposing  sects,  must  be  a  contradiction.  Herbert, 
Bolingbroke,  and  other  writers  of  a  lower  grade  in 
the  same  school,  may  have  become  unbelievers,  inde 
pendent  altogether  of  the  subordinate  cause  which  we 
are  now  considering,  and  might  have  retained  their 
unbelief  had  that  cause  been  removed  out  of  the  way ; 
but  it  was  among  the  auxiliaries  that  strengthened 
their  prejudices  against  Christianity,  furnished  them 
with  weapons  of  attack,  and  gave  their  infidel  senti- 
ments a  readier  access  into  the  minds  of  other  men. 
The  world  has,  in  these  conflicting  sects  and  divisions, 
a  hold  which  it  had  not  in  the  primitive  age  of  Chris- 
tianity; and,  without  assigning  to  the  unity  of  the 
church  that  efficiency  as  a  cause  which  some  (with 
a  view  of  precluding  a  higher  agency)  have  done,^  we 
cannot  doubt  that  its  visible  unity,  short  though  its 
continuance  was,  had  a  strong  subordinate  influence 
in  recommending  the  Christian  cause,  any  more  than 
we  can  doubt  that  the  return  of  peace  and  unity  will 
be  powerfully  instrumental  in  the  conversions  of  the 
latter  clay.  "Nothing,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "doth  so 
much  keep  men  out  of  the  church,  and  drive  men  out 
of  the   church,  as  breach  of  unity."     And,  as  Isaac 

'  Gibbon. 


464  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Taylor  remarks,  "If  we  could  only  bring  to  view  the 
secret  causes  of  that  infidelity  which,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
prevails  among  the  educated  classes,  this  now  named — 
the  scandal  arising  from  religious  dissensions,  would 
probably  appear  to  be  one  of  the  most  frequent  and 
determinative."^ 

The  most  powerful  arguments  in  favor  of  Chris- 
tianity have  been  repelled  and  thrown  upon  its  advo- 
cates by  the  infidel  sarcasm,  "Agree  among  yourselves 
first ;  and  then,  manifesting  yourselves,  what  you  pro- 
fess to  be,  the  disciples  of  one  Master,  come  and  ask 
us  to  join  you."  And  it  has  been  felt,  when  advocat- 
ing the  Christian  cause  before  those  who  are  indif- 
ferent or  opposed  to  it,  that,  however  shallow  the 
sophisms  by  which  they  endeavor  to  defend  their 
hostility,  and  however  much  that  hostility  is  to  be 
traced  to  an  ulterior  and  more  powerful  cause,  a  stum- 
bling-block, an  occasion  of  offence,  would  be  destroyed, 
were  the  breaches  in  Zion  healed;  and  the  church 
would  then  look  forth,  "  as  the  morning,"  on  a  world 
destined  to  be  her  inheritance,  "fair  as  the  moon,  clear 
as  the  sun,  and  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners." 
The  divisions  and  conflicting  opinions  of  the  Chris- 
tian world  have  been  a  source  of  painful  perplexity  to 
the  weak  and  inquiring  on  the  one  hand,  and  have 
operated  as  a  flattering  unction  to  the  -indifferent  and 
an  auxiliary  force  to  the  decidedly  hostile  on  the  other. 
Some  of  the  former,  with  great  want  of  manliness, 
have  sought  refuge  from  the  embarrassment  in  the 
infallibility  and  uniformity  of  Rome ;  thus  renouncing 
'  Spiritual  Christianity,  p.  149. 


V 
DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH.  4(55 

the  right  of  private  judgment,  after  having  exercised 
it  in  choosing  their  new  mother,  and  rolling  their 
responsibility  ever  afterwards  upon  the  back  of  a 
self-styled  infallibility — while  the  latter,  seeing  divi- 
sion to  be  the  weakness  of  the  church,  have,  with 
much  unfairness,  ascribed  it  to  the  weakness  of  Chris- 
tianity itself.  Robert  Hall,  in  allusion  to  the  con- 
troversies and  factions  which  distracted  the  church 
subsequent  to  the  Reformation,  arising  out  of  the 
abuse  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  then  nobly 
vindicated,  says,  "in  this  disjointed  and  disordered 
state  of  the  Christian  Church,  they  who  never  looked 
into  the  interior  of  Christianity  were  apt  to  suspect, 
that  to  a  subject  so  fruitful  in  particular  disputes 
must  attach  a  general  uncertainty ;  and  that  a  religion 
founded  on  revelation  could  never  have  occasioned 
such  discordancy  of  principle  and  practice  among  its 
disciples.  Thus  infidelity  is  the  joint  offspring  of  an 
irreligious  temper  and  unholy  speculation,  employed, 
not  in  examining  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  but 
in  detecting  the  vices  and  imperfections  of  professing 
Christians."^ 

Unity  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  uniform- 
ity. The  distinction  between  the  two,  however,  has 
often  been  lost  sight  of  both  by  the  enemies  and 
friends  of  Christianity.  The  church  has  had  many 
an  extensive  scheme  of  uniformity,  while  within  it 
there  has  been  anything  but  unity.  Popery  glories 
in  her  undivided  empire,  but  it  is  only  the  oneness  of 
iin   external    ceremonial,  which   shelters   men    of   no 

'  Moflern  Infidelity. 
30 


466  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

opinions  about  religion  and  men  of  almost  every 
diversity  of  opinion.  It  is  tlie  unity  of  millions 
yielding  an  external  homage  to  one  man,  and  scrupu- 
lously observing  tlie  same  outward  ceremonies,  while 
between  multitudes  of  tliem  there  are  few  or  no  other 
points  of  contact.  It  is  a  huge  fiction  to  maintain 
that  Rome  is,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  expression, 
an  united  church,  while  within  the  uniform  pale  are 
all  kinds  of  doctrines  from  supralapsarianism  to 
atheism.  "It  is  not  true,"  remarks  Archbishop 
Whateley,  "  that  the  church  of  Rome  is,  even  in  their 
own  sense  of  the  word,  exempt  from  divisions  and 
dissensions.  The  great  means  of  unity,  according  to 
most  of  them,  is  the  authority  of  the  pope ;  yet  they 
are  not  agreed  among  themselves  as  to  the  extent  of 
the  pope's  authority;  some  thinking  the  pope  infal- 
lible, others  denying  that  he  is;  some  making  him 
superior  to  a  general  council,  others  inferior,  etc. 
Nay,  learned  men  have  reckoited  up  at  least  twenty- 
four  fierce  schisms  and  dissensions  (some  of  them 
very  bloody)  about,  wlio  was  pope ;  when  several  rivals 
each  claimed  to  be  the  true  pope,  and  condemned  all 
others  as  impostors.  Again,  they  are  divided  among 
themselves  about  many  of  the  same  things  as  Pro- 
testants are  divided  about;  as  free-will,  predestina- 
tion, etc. ;  besides  many  disputes  which  have  no  place 
among  us.'''' 

Protestantism,  too,  in  aping  the  imposing  system 
of  Rome,  has  had  its  schemes  of  uniformity,  but 
these   schemes   have    failed    of    exhibiting    Christian 

*  Cautions  for  the  Times,  p.  28. 


DISUNION    OF    THE   CHUECH.  467 

unity.  The  unity  for  which  the  Saviour  prayed  was 
a  oneness  of  heart  and  soul  among  his  people — mani- 
fested in  loving  each  other,  in  seeking  the  salvation  of 
men,  and  in  promoting  the  extension  of  his  kingdom. 
This  unity  is  perfectly  consistent  with  minor  differ- 
ences. It  is  not  necessary  to  its  exhibition,  and  in 
order  to  secure  its  good  results,  that  all  be  bound  up 
in  one  and  the  same  system  of  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion.^ This  we  regard  as  altogether  Utopian.  On 
such  points,  for  example,  as  church  government,  and 
the  subjects  of  baptism.  Scripture  is  not  so  fall  and 
explicit,  as  to  preclude  diversity  of  sentiment  among 


'  Mr.  Kuskin,  iu  concluding  his  "  Notes  on  the  Construction  of 
Sheepfolds,"  thus  speaks :  "  But  how  to  unite  the  two  great  sects  of 
paralyzed  Protestants  ?  By  keeping  simply  to  Scripture.  The 
members  of  the  Scottish  church  have  not  a  shadow  of  excuse  for 
refusing  episcopacy ;  it  has  indeed  been  abused  among  them ; 
grievously  abused ;  but  it  is  in  the  Bible ;  and  that  is  all  they  have 
a  right  to  ask.  They  have  also  no  shadow  of  excuse  for  refusing  to 
employ  a  written  form  of  prayer.  It  may  not  be  to  their  taste — 
it  may  not  be  the  way  in  which  they  like  to  pray ;  but  it  is  no  ques- 
tion, at  present,  of  likes  or  dislikes,  but  of  duties."  (p.  49.)  Sup- 
pose another  author,  in  Ids  "  Notes  on  the  Construction  of  Sheep- 
folds,"  were  to  say  :  "  The  members  of  the  episcopal  church  have 
not  a  shaddow  of  excuse  for  refusing  presbyterianism ;  it  has  indeed 
been  abused  among  them ;  but  it  is  in  the  Bible ;  and  that  is  all 
they  have  a  right  to  ask  :" — would  not  the  one  statement,  even  in 
the  estimation  of  many  episcopalians — not  to  speak  of  thousands  of 
Christian  men  who  are  neither  episcopalians  nor  presbyterians — be 
as  good  as  the  other  ?  In  truth,  no  section  of  the  Christian  church, 
iu  makiug  proposals  for  union,  is  entitled  to  speak  in  this  strain  to 
any  other  section.  It  is  an  aping  of  Romish  airs,  it  is  a  setting  at 
defiance  Christian  men's  conscientious  convictions,  and  it  throws  a 
stumbling-block  not  only  in  the  way  of  incorporation  but  of  co-opera- 
tion. "  Christ  has  ordered  us  to  be  at  peace  one  with  another."  But 
tJiese  are  not  the  terms. 


468  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

sincerely    good    men.     And   the   grand    reason,    we 
doubt  not,    is,  that    the  disciples   of    Christ   may  be 
taught  to  forbear  one  another  in  love.     Uniformity  is 
never  enjoined  in  Scripture,  but  unity,  times  and  ways 
without   number,   is.     It   is   according  as    Christians 
have  already  attained,  that  they  are  to  walk  by  the 
same  rule  and  to  mind  the  same  thing.     Besides,  who 
does  not  see  that  the  unanimity  of  the  church  would 
be  more  strikingly  manifested,  and  present  a  more  per- 
suasive spectacle  to  the  world,  did  it  exist  along  with 
minor  diversities,  than  under  a  smoothly  shaven  sys- 
tem of  uniformity?     In  the  latter  case,   there  might 
be  a  danger  of  ecclesiastical  despotism,  which  would 
excite  the  jealousy  of  the  world;  in  the  former  case, 
there  would  be  the  working  of  a  powerful  common 
principle,  making  it  manifest  that  the  religion  which 
produced   such  benignant  harmony  amid  such  diver- 
sity,  must  be  not  of  man  but  of  God.     "  There  is," 
says  Sir  James  Stephen,    "  an  essential  unity  in  that 
'  Kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world.'     But  within  the 
provinces  of  that  mighty  state  there  is  room  for  end- 
less varieties  of  administration,  and  for  local  laws  and 
customs  widely  differing  from  each  other.     The  unity 
consists  in  the  one  object  of  worship — the  one  object 
of  afi&ance — the   one   source   of  virtue — the   one   ce- 
menting principle  of  mutual  love,  which  pervade  and 
animate   the   whole.     The   diversities   are,    and  must 
be,   as  numerous  and  intractable  as  are  the  essential 
distinctions  which    nature,   habit,    and   circumstances 
have  created  among  men.     Uniformity  of  creeds,  ot 
discipline,   of  ritual,   and   of  ceremonies,    in    such    a 


DISUNION   OF    THE    CHURCH.  469 

world  as  ours ! — a  world  where  no  two  men  are  not  as 
distinguisliable  in  their  mental  as  in  their  physical 
aspect ;  where  every  petty  community  has  its  separate 
system  of  civil  government ;  where  all  that  meets  the 
eye,  and  all  that  arrests  the  ear,  has  a  stamp  of 
boundless  and  infinite  variety!"^ 

If  many  of  the  professed  friends  of  Christianity 
have  erred  in  their  zeal  for  uniformity  of  religious 
opinions  and  ceremonies,  its  avowed  enemies  have 
unfairly  argued  as  if  the  absence  of  uniformity  indi- 
cated the  want  of  certitude.  In  "  Voltaire's  Dic- 
tionary," under  the  article  "  sect,"  it  is  said,  "  there  is 
no  sect  in  geometry,  mathematics,  or  experimental 
philosophy.  When  truth  is  evident,  it  is  impossible 
to  divide  people  into  parties  and  factions.  Nobody 
disputes  that  it  is  broad  day  at  noon."  In  this  way  it 
is  attempted  to  preclude  all  incjuiry  into  the  evidences 
of  Christianity,  and  to  lead  men  to  conclude  that 
religion  has  no  fixed  data,  because  there  have  been 
so  many  conflicting  opinions  and  divisions  within  its 
province.  It  is  surely  a  miserably  ungenerous  charge 
against  the  Christian  religion,  that  it  has  not  the 
evidence  of  the  mathematical  sciences — an  evidence 
that  arises  out  of  their  very  nature,  but  which  is 
altogether  foreign  to  a  system  of  moral  truth.  The 
argument  amounts  to  this,  that  because  the  gospel 
cannot  be  shown  to  be  so  demonstrably  true  as  that 
the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right 
angles,  therefore  it  cannot  be  proved  to  be  true  at  all. 
In  other  'words,  no  evidence   is  to  be  relied  on  but 

'  Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  vol.  i.,  p.  518. 


470  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

that  wliicli  belongs  to  what  are  called  the  accurate 
sciences.  By  such  a  course  of  reasoning  as  this, 
political  economy,  for  example,  might  be  denounced 
as  a  baseless  science,  because  the  greatest  politicians 
have  embraced  the  most  conflicting  theories  in  legis 
lation;  and  all  philosophical  investigations,  that  are 
not  of  a  strictly  mathematical  character,  might  be 
interdicted  as  useless,  because  they  have  given  rise  to 
much  opposing  speculations.  Moral  subjects  can 
admit  of  no  evidence  that  is  incompatible  with  human 
responsibility.  So  that  to  object  that  Christianity 
has  no  certainty  because  it  has  not  mathematical  cer- 
tainty, is  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  it  cannot  be  true 
because  it  wants  the  evidence  which  would  deprive 
men  of  the  liberty  of  rejecting  it.  Besides,  there  are 
no  inducements  for  a  sane  man  to  deny  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  or  that  it  is  broad  day  at  noon ;  but 
there  are  strong  mental  tendencies  which  lead  mul- 
titudes to  darken  the  lustre  of  Christianity,  and  to 
deny  that  it  is  true.  As  a  system  of  pure  moral  truth, 
it  thwarts  depraved  human  propensities;  and  that 
accounts  for  its  being  corrupted  or  rejected  by  men, 
though  its  evidences  stand  before  them  as  clear  and 
majestic  as  the  sun. 

But  it  is  too  much  to  grant  that  there  are  no  sects 
in  experimental  philosophy.  Astronomy  and  geology 
belong  to  the  inductive  sciences,  and  very  opposite 
theories  in  both  have  been  held  by  the  most  eminent 
philosophers.  But  who  would  conclude  on  the 
ground  of  these  conflicting  theories,  that  there  is  not 
a  true  system  of  astronomy  or  geology  ?     And  where 


DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH.  471 

is  the  fairness  of  denouncing  Christianity  as  the  most 
uncertain  of  all  things,  because  its  adherents,  on  some 
points,  have  held  very  different  opinions?  The  ob- 
jection, we  are  noticing,  is  not  unlike  that  which  is 
urged  against  the  Gospel  on  account  of  the  mysterious 
nature  of  its  truths.  The  sciences  which  admit  of 
demonstration,  pursued  to  a  certain  length,  land  the 
mind  in  a  region  of  mysteries,  as  well  as  do  the 
truths  of  revelation.  So  that,  if  the  attribute  of 
mysteriousness  is  sufficient  to  falsify  a  system,  it 
would  falsify  the  higher  branches  of  mathematical 
science.  And  if  the  circumstance  of  a  diversity  of 
opinion  having  scope  within  a  system,  be  an  argu- 
ment against  the  system  itself,  it  must  sweep  away 
from  the  region  of  the  true  many  other  commonly-re- 
ceived systems  of  truth  besides  the  religion  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  in  his  zeal  for  high  church  princi- 
ples, has  asserted  that  the  state  of  the  exact  sciences 
proves,  that,  as  respects  religion,  "the  association  of 
these  two  ideas,  activity  of  inquiry,  and  variety  of  con 
elusion,  is  a  fallacious  one."  His  brilliant  reviewer, 
Mr.  Macaulay,  says,  in  reply,  "  Our  way  of  ascertaining 
the  tendency  of  free  inquiry  is  simply  to  open  our 
eyes  and  look  at  the  world  in  which  we  live ;  and  there 
we  see  that  free  inquiry  on  mathematical,  subjects  pro- 
duces unity,  and  that  free  inquiry  on  moral  subjects 
produces  discrepancy.  .  .  .  Discrepancy  there  will  be 
among  the  most  diligent  and  candid,  as  long  as  the 
constitution  of  the  human  mind,  and  the  nature  of 
moral  evidence,  continue  unchanged.  That  we  have 
not  freedom  and  unity  together  is  a  very  sad  thing ; 


472  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH, 

and  so  it  is  that  we  have  not  wings.  But  we  are  just 
as  likely  to  see  the  one  defect  removed  as  the  other. 
It  is  not  only  in  religion  that  this  discrepancey  is 
found.  It  is  the  same  with  all  matters  which  depend 
on  moral  evidence,  with  judicial  questions,  for  exam- 
ple, and  with  political  questions.  All  the  judges  will 
work  a  sum  in  the  rule  of  three  on  the  same  principle, 
and  bring  out  the  same  conclusion.  But  it  does  not 
follow  thai,  however  honest  and  laborious  they  may 
be,  they  will  all  be  of  one  mind  on  the  Douglas  case."^ 
But  if  it  is  vain  to  think  of  securing  union  in  the 
church  by  a  visible  uniformity,  or  by  amalgamating 
all  denominations  into  one,  it  is  not  vain  to  seek*  after 
visible  unanimity  among  the  several  sections  of  the 
church  holding  those  fundamental  doctrines  which 
we  mentioned,  in  the  beginning  of  this  essay,  as  em- 
phatically constituting  the  truth  of  God.  We  may, 
and  will,  continue  to  have  diversities  of  forms,  but  let 
these  be  seen  to  be  animated  by  an  all-pervading  unity 
of  spirit.  It  is  obviously  implied  in  the  Saviour's  in- 
tercessory prayer,  that  the  world  must  be  confirmed 
in  its  infidelity  by  the  visible  disunion  of  the 
Christian  community;  and  that  the  world's  conversion 
depends,  in  a  great  measure,  on  the  palpable  unani- 
mity of  his  professed  followers.  He  prayed  for  their 
union,  in  order  that  the  world  might  believe  that  the 
Father  had  sent  Him.  This  consummation,  so  de- 
voutly to  be  wished,  would  have  a  favorable  bearing 
on  mankind,  in  two  ways  at  least,  just  as  the  divided 

'  Review  of  Gladstone  on  Church  and  State.     (Edinburgh  Review, 
April,  1839.) 


DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH.  473 

state  of  the  churcli  has  an  unfavorable  influence  in 
two  opposite  ways. 

In  the  first  place,  the  exhibition  of  unity  would  tell 
mightily  as  a  demonstration  of  the  divinity  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  Our  thoughts,"  remarks  the  author  of  the 
Essay  on  the  Port  Royalists,  "are  steeped  in  imagery; 
and  where  the  palpable  form  is  not,  the  impalpable 
spirit  escapes  the  notice  of  the  unreflecting  multi- 
tude. In  common  hands,  analysis  stops  at  the 
species  or  the  genus,  and  cannot  rise  to  the  order 
or  the  class.  To  distinguish  birds  from  fishes, 
beasts  from  insects,  limits  the  efforts  of  the  vulgar 
observer  of  the  face  of  animated  nature.  But 
Cuvier  could  trace  the  sublime  unity,  the  universal 
type,  the  fontal  Idea,  existing  in  the  creative  intel- 
ligence, which  connects  as  one  the  mammoth  and 
the  snail.  So,  common  observers  can  distinguish 
from  each  other  the  different  varieties  of  religious 
society,  and  can  rise  no  higher.  Where  one  assembly 
worships  with  harmonies  of  music,  fumes  of  incense, 
ancient  liturgies,  and  a  gorgeous  ceremonial,  and 
another  listens  to  the  unaided  voice  of  a  single 
pastor,  they  can  perceive  and  record  the  differences ; 
but  the  hidden  ties  which  unite  them  both  escape 
such  observation.  All  appears  as  contrast,  and  all 
ministers  to  antipathy  and  discord."^  The  sublime 
unity  of  the  church  of  Christ,  the  hidden  ties  which 
link  one  member  with  another,  and  all  with  the 
Head,  escape  the  notice  of  the  world.  They  are 
spiritually    discerned.       Hence    the    necessity    of    a 

'  Sir  James  Stephen's  Essays  in  Eccl.  Biog.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  519,  520. 


474  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

visible  outward  expression  of  the  real  hidden  unity. 
The  prayer  of  the  God-man  Mediator  demands 
palpable  unanimity.  Mere  unanimity  among  the 
adherents  of  any  system  does  not  of  itself  prove  the 
truth  of  that  system.  Men  have  often  combined  for 
the  propagation  of  error.  But  the  unity  may  be  of  such 
a  kind,  displaying  such  purity,  disinterestedness,  and 
benevolence,  as  to  carry  along  with  it  a  convincing 
evidence  that  it  is  of  God.  It  may  be  seen  to  be  such 
an  effect  as  no  known  motive  power  among  men  could 
produce,  and  which  must  be  ascribed  to  a  Divine  in- 
terposition. 

Such   was    the   visible    union    manifested    by    the 
primitive   Christians,  which  was   attended  with   such 
remarkable  triumphs.     It  was  such  a  union  of  heart 
and  hand  for  bringing  the  greatest  glory  to  God,  and 
effecting  the  greatest  good  among  men,  as  the  world 
never  saw.     It  was  a  lovely  persuasive  spectacle,  as  free 
from   selfish  elements  on  the   one   hand   as  from  fa- 
naticism  on   the   other.     The  world  beheld  men  of 
every  diversity  of  character,  separated  naturally  from 
each  other  by  different  habits  and  stations,  and  by 
the    most    conflicting     interests,    coming    under    the 
transforming   influence   of  the   Christian   faith,  losing 
thereby  their  mutual  repulsions  and  enmities,  moving 
in   the   same   element    of    love,   bound    sweetly   and 
strongly   to   a   common   crucified   Lord   and  to  each 
other,  and  looking  on  that  world  with  something  of 
the  benevolent  yearnings  of  Him  who  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.     It  was  not  a  union 
of  men  who  had  agreed  to  merge  their  differing  tastes 


DISUNION    OF   THE   CHURCH.  475 

and  sentiments  in  a  common  impulse,  and  to  combine 
for  the  purpose  of  furthering  a  cause  which  would 
get  them  a  name  on  the  earth,  or  secure  some  worldly 
interests.  In  such  a  case,  the  heterogeneous  elements 
might  have  been  driven  asunder,  mutual  jealousies  and 
rivalries  would  have  arisen,  and  the  bonds  of  union 
would  have  been  broken  amid  the  tumult  of  passions 
and  conflicting  gains.  Such  were  the  disastrous  re- 
sults of  the  introduction  of  worldly  elements  after- 
wards into  the  church.  But  it  was  a  union  of  ma- 
terials, which,  though  originally  discordant,  underwent 
a  radical  change ;  and,  while  each  reflected  the  image 
of  their  common  Lord,  all  were  bound  in  love  to  one 
another,  and  in  the  most  disinterested  effort  to  regen- 
erate and  bless  the  world.  Multitudes  beheld  the 
astonishing  spectacle.  It  was  a  new  and  lovely 
creation,  which  could  not  be  accounted  for  on  natural 
principles.  The  purity,  love,  and  benevolence  of  the 
Gospel,  were  impressively  exhibited  in  the  community 
of  its  professed  followers ;  and,  in  that  exhibition,  the 
world  saw  and  felt  an  evidence  that  Christianity  is 
divine,  and  that  the  Father  had  sent  the  Son. 

So  will  it  be  again.  The  evidence  derived  from 
the  palpable  unanimity  of  the  Christian  church,  is 
emerging  forth  anew.  To  this  result  the  leagued 
assaults  of  infidelity  and  superstition  are  contributing. 
The  Redeemer  with  his  fan  in  his  hand  is  purging 
his  floor,  making  more  manifest  the  broad  distinction 
between  his  friends  and  his  foes.  And  when  the 
faithful  of  every  name  have  ceased  to  mal  -^  matters, 
confessedly  subordinate,  rallying  points  foi    \  party; 


476  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

and  are  made  willing  to  acknowledge  and  co-operate 
with,  all  those  who  hold  by  the  Head ;  when  those 
■jealousies  and  discords  are  banished  from  the  king- 
dom of  God,  which  however  natural  in  the  empires 
>f  earth,  are  uncongenial  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven ; 
ind  when  the  church  looks  forth  again  as  one  united 
force  on  the  world,  at  war  with  nothing  but  all  the 
powers  of  evil,  and  manifestly  the  greatest  instrument 
of  good ;  all,  but  the  wilfully  blinded  and  irrecoverably 
depraved,  will  be  constrained  to  acknowledge  the 
hand  of  the  Invisible,  and  to  receive  Christianity  as 
of  God.  "Fain  would  I,"  says  Calvin,  "that  all  the 
churches  of  Christ  were  so  united,  that  the  angels 
might  look  down  from  heaven  and  add  to  our  glory 
with  their  harmony."  He  might  have  added,  as  no 
doubt  he  felt,  that  the  unreasonableness  of  unbelief 
might  be  driven  from  one  of  its  refuges  of  lies. 

We  are  led  to  remark  secondly,  that  the  unity  of 
action,  consequent  on  the  unity  of  exhibition,  would 
tell  powerfully  on  the  successful  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity. Sectarianism  has  been  the  bane  of  the 
church.  Multiplied  divisions  have  weakened  her 
energies.  A  vast  amount  of  zeal  and  power,  which 
should  have  been  brou2:ht  to  bear  on  the  conversion 
of  the  world,  has  been  expended  in  assailing  and 
defending  the  several  points  on  which  the  Christian 
community  has  been  split  into  fragments.  Christen- 
dom has  often  resembled  a  battle-field,  in  which  the 
Beveral  detachments  of  the  same  army,  instead  of 
combining  in  one  aggressive  movement  against  the 
common   foe,   have   raised   the  shout  of  war   against 


DISUNION    OF    THE   CHURCH.  477 

each  otlier.  The  enemy,  meanwhile,  has  exulted  at 
the  sight,  and  not  only  been  fortified  in  the  belief 
that  Christianity  is  a  profession  under  which  men 
drive  low  and  selfish  designs,  but  has  strengthened 
his  position  in  defying  the  armies  of  the  living  God. 
The  storms  of  controversy  may  have  been  over-ruled 
for  purifying  the  atmosphere  of  the  church,  and  pre- 
serving in  vigor  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints; 
but  although  good  has  come  out  of  the  evil,  the  evil 
has  been  manifested  in  the  consumption  of  so  much 
intellectual  energy  and  effort  on  internal  disputes, 
which  might  have  been  bestowed  on  the  infinitely 
nobler  object  of  converting  the  world  to  God. 

There  have  been  great  questions  of  principle  in- 
volved in  many  of  the  divisions  of  the  church ;  and 
better  is  it  to  have  divisions  than  that  important  prin- 
ciples should  be  sacrificed ;  but  the  rent  has  not  un- 
frequently  been  made  on  the  most  unjustifiable  pre- 
texts ;  and  even  when  the  denominational  distinctions 
have  been  called  for,  the  zeal  in  aiding  the  common  ob- 
ject of  evangelizing  the  world,  has  been  woefully  dis- 
proportionate to  that  bestowed  on  lengthening  the 
cords  and  strengthening  the  stakes  of  party  interests. 
The  primitive  church,  so  long  as  it  had  the  unity  of 
exhibition,  had  the  unity  of  action  also.  It  not  only 
presented  one  undivided  front  to  the  world,  but  it 
brought  the  full  tide  of  its  heavenly  energy  to  bear  on 
the  point  of  the  world's  conversion.  In  the  palpable 
unanimity  of  the  Christian  community,  was  not  only 
exhibited  a  lovely  persuasive  spectacle;  but  out  of 
that  unanimity,  arose  a  might  of  benevolence  which, 


478  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

like  a  noble  river  enriched  by  a  thousand  streamlets, 
fertilized  and  gladdened  every  region  through  which 
it  flowed.     The  force  which  was  afterwards  spent  on 
internal  strifes   and    party  interests,  was   exerted  in 
executing  the  Lord's   commission  to  go  into  all   the 
world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature  ;    and 
it  ran  speedily,  and  vast  multitudes  everywhere  be- 
came obedient  to  the  faith.     The  Church  stood   out 
from  the  world,  one  in  its  interests  and  aims,  and  the 
world  felt  the  power  of  its  instrumentality,   and  ac- 
knowledged that  it  was  of  God.     If  ever  there  was  a 
period  when  Christianity  seemed  on  the  eve  of  mak- 
ing the  world  all  her  own,  it  was  within  the  century 
after  the  effusion  of  Pentecost,  when,  under  an  united 
impulse,  and  endued  with  power  from  on  high,   she 
travelled  onward  in    the  greatness   of  her   strength. 
The  victories  of  Imperial  Rome  were  eclipsed  by  the 
bloodless    conquests   of    the    "kingdom    not   of    this 
world."    The  standard  of  the  cross  was  planted  beyond 
the  bounds  where  stood  the  standard  of  Ciesar.     And 
the  angel,  having  the  everlasting  Gospel,  flew  farther 
than  the   Roman  eagles.     An  united  Church,  in  the 
face   of    the   most  powerful   obstacles,    spread   itself, 
within  a  century  after  the  ascension  of  Christ,  more 
rapidly  and  extensively  than  it  has  done  in  any  sin- 
gle  century  since.     And,  as  already  hinted,  without 
assigning   this  as  exclusively  the  cause  of  the  rapid 
progress  of  the  Gospel;  or,  with  Gibbon,  accounting 
it  one  of  a  number  of  natural  causes  that  produced 
the    unparalleled    effect— (for    the    question    occurs 
whence  that  union) — we  cannot,   Avith  the  Saviours 


DISUNION    OF   THE    CHURCH.  479 

intercessory  prayer  before  us,  hesitate  to  acknowledge 
it  as  a  powerfully  subordinate  source  of  tlie  Church's 
strength.  Ichabod  might  almost  have  been  written 
upon  her — for  her  glory  had  nearly  departed — when 
men  of  worldly  policy  tampered  with  her  purity,  and 
strifes  and  divisions  brake  her  in  pieces. 

But  there  have  been  noble  things  done  since,  by 
the  combined  efforts  of  large  portions  of  the  Christian 
community,  which  indicate  what  a  mighty  influence 
for  good  a  thoroughly  united  church  would  exert  on 
the  mass  of  mankind.  The  Reformation  from  Po- 
pery, the  most  glorious  event  since  the  introduction  of 
Christianity,  was,  to  a  considerable  degree,  the  united 
work  of  the  children  of  God  that  were  scattered  abroad. 
The  London  Missionary  Society,  the  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society,  the  Tract  Society,  and  some 
other  kindred  institutions,  have,  by  the  catholicity 
of  their  constitution,  opened  up  common  channels, 
into  which  the  several  sections  of  the  church  might 
bring  their  enlightened  efforts,  and  thereby  diffuse 
the  river  of  the  water  of  life  over  our  own  and  other 
lands.  But  these  have  been  but  earnests,  and  indica- 
tions of  what  that  unity,  which  the  Saviour  prayed  for, 
would  effect.  It  is  no  Utopian  dream — a  thing  to  be 
desired  rather  than  expected — to  believe  that  the  time 
will  come  when  the  church  will  possess  that  unity  of 
exhibition  and  of  action  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking,  that  then  infidelity  will  be  driven  from 
one  of  its  refuges,  and  the  world,  now  unbelieving 
without  a  cause,  will  have  a  clear  palpable  proof  that 
the  Father  has  sent  the  Son  and  that  Christianity  is 


480  DISUNION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

divine.  The  old  sarcasm  of  tlie  unbeliever,  derived 
from  the  disjointed  and  disorderly  state  of  the  church, 
will  be  silenced ;  the  repulsive  aspect,  which  divisions 
have  given  to  Christianity,  will  be  effaced,  and  her 
native  loveliness  be  restored;  a  mighty  stumbling- 
block,  in  the  way  of  the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel,  will 
be  removed;  and  Christians,  being  united  to  each 
other  in  heart  and  hand,  will  come,  with  a  moral 
might  such  as  the  world  has  not  experienced  for  ages, 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  the. help  of  the  Lord  against 
the  mighty.  The  brief  but  bright  description  of  the 
churches  given  by  James  Montgomery,  will  then  be 
realized: — "distinct  as  the  billows,  but  one  as  the 
sea."  Meanwhile,  God,  in  the  signs  of  the  times,  is 
calling  upon  all  the  friends  of  the  pure  Gospel  truth 
to  make  it  manifest  that  they  are  one.  The  religion 
of  Christ,  in  our  land,  is  powerfully  beset  by  a  bold 
reviving  Romanism  on  the  one  hand  and  by  a  subtle, 
busy,  well-organized  infidelity  on  the  other.  Both 
would,  in  a  great  measure,  be  disarmed  and  driven 
back,  were  the  ranks  of  evangelical  Protestantism  to 
re-unite  and  move  forward  under,  the  impulse  of  an 
all-pervading  spirit  of  unity.  Let  the  churches  hear 
the  words  of  the  Genevese  Reformer  whose  love  of 
union  was  as  the  love  of  life : — "  Keep  your  smaller 
differences,  let  us  have  no  discord  on  that  account ; 
but  let  us  march  in  one  solid  column,  under  the  ban- 
ners of  the  Captain  of  our  salvation,  and  with  undi- 
vided counsels  form  the  legion  of  the  cross  upon  the 
ton'itories  of  darkness  and  of  death." 


fart  tlje  C|irJr. 

INFIDELITY  IN  ITS  VAKIOUS  AGENCIES. 


THE  PRESS. 
THE  CLUBS. 
THE  SCHOOLS. 
THE  PULPIT 


fiifiklit])  ill  Ub  Uariotts  %^tum. 


Truth  and  error,  good  and  evil,  are  propagated  in 
the  world  bj  the  same  instrumentalities;  "aj^d  no 
marvel,  for  Satan  himself  is  transformed  into  an 
angel  of  light."  The  most  powerful  means  in  ac- 
complishing the  greatest  good,  are  made  the  most 
effectual  ministers  of  the  greatest  evil.  Infidelity 
fights  truth  with  her  own  weapons.  Aaron  casts 
down  his  rod  before  Pharaoh,  and  it  becomes  a  ser- 
pent; and  the  magicians  of  Egypt  do  likewise  with 
their  enchantments.  The  die  that  gives  the  impress 
to  the  genuine  coin,  is  employed  to  stamp  the  coun- 
terfeit. The  poison  and  the  healing  waters  flow 
through  like  channels.  And  it  is  not  more  common 
for  good  men  and  bad  men  to  walk  on  the  same 
roads,  ride  in  the  same  carriages,  and  sail  in  the 
same  ships,  than  it  is  for  God's  truth  and  the  devil's 
lie  to  pass  through  the  same  medium.  We  do  not 
reckon  the  air  less  precious  as  the  gift  of  heaven, 
because  men  send  through  it  curses  as  well  as  bless- 
ings. And  the  agencies  for  disseminating  truth  are 
not  a  whit  less  valuable  because  some  men  use  them 
for  propagating  falsehood.      The  good  and  the  evil 


484  INFIDELITY    IN    ITS   VARIOUS    AGENCIES. 

come  so  closely  together  in  the  world,  and  are  found 
in  such  perpetual  antagonism,  that  wherever  you  see 
an  effective  instrumentality  in  the  hands  of  the  former, 
you  may  expect  to  meet  with  a  like  one  in  the  hands 
of  the  latter.     Infidelity  thus  follows   after   faith  in 
order   to  destroy  it.     The  magicians  are  suffered  to 
do  with  their  enchantments  in  like  manner  as  Aaron 
the  servant  of  God.     But  Aaron's  rod  at  last  swallows 
up  their  rods.     And  so  will  ultimately _be  destroyed 
all  the  works  of  the  devil.     Infidelity,  meanwhile,  is 
up  and  doing ;  and,  as  if  conscious  that  the  hour  of 
decision  had  come,  is  vigorously  plying  for  evil  all 
the  instrumentalities  of  good.     "  It  may  be,"  as  Pro- 
fessor  Garbett  remarks,   "that  at  all  the  periods  of 
the  world,  the  rude  material  of  unbelief  is  a  constant 
quantity.      The   only   difference   may   consist   in   the 
presence   or    absence   of   outward   checks,    and   such 
repressive     influences     as,    in     ancient     times,    were 
exercised    by   those   civil   and    ecclesiastical    polities 
which  can   never   be  reimposed  upon  the  masses  of 
mankind.     The  spread  of  liberty  alike  of  action  and 
thought,  the   enormous   expansion   of   the  sphere  in 
which  intellect  ranges,  and,  above  all,  the  approxima- 
tion, through  the  press,  of  man  to  man,  and  the  con- 
tact of  intellect  with  intellect,  have,  on  this  hypoth- 
esis, only  quickened  and  revealed  what  was   always 
latent."^     But  so  it  is.     The  power  of  the  Press,  of  the 
Clubs,  of  the  Schools,  and  of  the  Pulpit,  is  wielded 
most  effectually  on  the  side  of  the  various  forms  of 
infidelity. 

'  Modern  Philosophical  Infidelity. 


•       CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PRESS. 

Great  power  of  tliis  agency — Its  benignant  doings  in  the  world — • 
Powerfully  employed  on  the  side  of  infidelity — Great  breadth  of 
the  reading  mind — Unprecedented  cheapness  and  abundance  of 
literature  —  Influx  from  Germany  —  Shoal  of  French  novels-^ 
Carlyle  and  his  imitators — Influence  of  Combe's  Constitution  of 
Man — Tractarian  books  for  the  village  poor — Periodical  literature 
the  strongest  combined  agency — French  Newspaper  Press — The 
feuilleton  —  Continental  Press  in  general  —  Our  own  periodical 
literature — Newspapers — Classification  of  the  enormous  issue  of 
anti-Christian  cheap  publications:  1st.  The  avoiccdiy  infidel — 
Organ  of  atheistic  secularism — 2d.  The  polluting — Disclosures  of 
Mr.  Mayhew — 3d.  The  latitudinarian — The  "  Family  Herald  "- 
4th.  TJie  morally  neutral — The  Church  becoming  awake  to  tho 
evil — Improvements  in  some  old  influential  organs — Edinburgh 
Review — Good  service  doing  by  younger  ones — A  lack  of  cheap 
entertaining  Christianized  literature — Defect  of  Chambers' — Re- 
sources of  the  Church. 

The  miglitiest  agency  of  modern  times,  in  dissemi- 
nating either  good  or  evil,  is  unquestionably  the  Press. 
It  has  long  been  the  rival  of  the  pulpit,  and  is  now, 
if  we  mistake  not,  in  the  wide  range  of  its  influence, 
far  ahead  of  it.  Millions,  who  listen,  week  after  week, 
to  the  living  voice  of  the  preacher,  are  daily  fed  by 
the  press ;  and  millions  more  are  only  accessible  by 
its  instrumentality,  and  to  them  it  is  the  great 
teacher.  The  time  was  when  it  was  otherwise. 
Before  the  discovery  of  printing,  society  was  almost 


486  THE    PRESS. 

entirely  dependent  on  oral  instruction.  Books,  exist- 
ing in  the  shape  of  manuscripts,  were  few  and  costly, 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  all  but  the  wealthy.  Men 
learned  nearly  everything  that  they  did  learn  from 
the  orator  in  the  forum,  from  the  philosopher  in  the 
schools,  or  from  the  preacher  in  the  church.  The 
breadth  of  mind  that  came  under  such  influences  was 
by  no  means  generally  great ;  and,  if  we  except  the 
illustrious  teachers  of  the  ancient  world,  and  the 
preachers  of  the  early  age  of  the  church,  the  instru- 
mentalities as  means  of  instruction  were  for  the  most 
part  powerless.  But  the  press,  for  the  last  three 
centuries,  has  occupied  much  of  the  ground  that 
once  belonged  exclusively  to  the  oral  instructor ;  and 
with  vast  multitudes  in  our  day  it  is  made  the  chief, 
if  not  the  sole  teacher.  This  is  the  case  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  our  own  country,  and  much  more 
is  it  so  in  France  and  other  parts  of  the  Continent. 
The  appetite  for  periodical  literature,  on  both  sides  of 
the  channel,  is  strong.  And  every  class,  movement, 
and  interest,  are  represented,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  in  the  mighty  current.  Like  a  never-failing 
fountain,  the  press  is  sending  forth  its  publications 
of  every  possible  variety  of  character,  as  numerous 
as  the  dew-drops  from  the  womb  of  the  morning,  all 
of  which  are  exerting  an  influence  for  good  or  evil 
on  the  masses  with  whom  they  come  in  contact.  It 
has  been  said — and,  notwithstanding  the  temporary 
thraldom  to  which  the  French  press  is  now  sub- 
jected, the  statements  are  still  substantially  true — 
''without  a  newspaper,  France  is  deaf     .     .    .    Every 


THE    PRESS.  487 

morning  when  it  awakes,  tlie  reading  public  of  France 
is  appealed  to  by  the  defenders  of  interests,  parties, 
ideas,  systems  of  all  descriptions,  waging  war  against 
one  another,  for  the  conquest  of  the  present,  or  the 
direction  of  the  future.  Religion,  politics,  philosophy, 
industry,  arts,  sciences — everything  is  represented, 
everything  finds  an  utterance,  everything  stirs  about, 
under  the  full  blaze  of  daily  publicity :  everything — 
except  Evangelical  Protestantism ;  for  in  this  universal 
concert  of  human  passions  and  convictions,  the  voice 
of  the  Gospel  alone  is  missing."^ 

If  this  description  does  not  apply,  in  every  particu- 
lar, to  our  own  country  (and  we  rejoice  to  think  that  it 
does  not),  it  is  for  the  most  part  applicable  to  the  range 
and  influence  of  our  own  press.  Its  sends  forth  its 
streams  of  powerful  influence  for  weal  or  woe,  far  and 
wide;  here  diffusing  the  blessings  of  heavenly  truth 
and  holy  beauty,  and  there  scattering  the  curses  of 
error  and  moral  desolation. 

"  By  thee  religion,  liberty,  and  laws, 
Exert  their  influence  and  advance  their  cause : 
By  thee  worse  plagues  than  Pharaoh's  land  befell, 
Diffused,  make  earth  the  vestibule  of  hell ; 
Thou  fountain,  at  which  drink  the  good  and  wise, 
Thou  ever-bubbling  spring  of  endless  lies ; 
Like  Eden's  dread  probationary  tree, 
Knowledge  of  good  and  evil  springs  from  thee.'" 

The  good  resulting  from  the  press,  upon  the  whole, 
is  certainly  much  greater  than  the  evil.  The  inven- 
tion of  printing  has  proved  one  of  the  mightiest  and 

'  Pastor  Boucher.     (In  "  The  Power  of  the  Press :"  p.  32.) 
'  Cowper's  Progress  of  Error. 


488  THE    PRESS. 

most     beneficent     instrumentalities     that    has     been 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  world.     The  civilization  of 
mankind  has  advanced  rapidly  since  this  noble  dis- 
covery.    It  has  been  one  of  the  most  effective  agen- 
cies in  scattering  the  seeds  of  immortal  truth  abroad 
among   men.     And   all  who   take  an  interest  in  the 
advancement  of  human  society  have  reason  to  thank 
God  for  the  press.     It  gave  the  mightiest  impulse  to 
the  revival  of  learning  in  the  fifteenth  century.     It 
roused  the   mind   of  Europe  from  the  sleep   of  the 
middle   ages,  and    made   the   nations   feel   that   they 
were  men.     It  not  only  brought  to  light,  and  scattered 
abroad,  the  treasures  of  classical  literature,  but  it  was 
early  consecrated  to  the  work  of  quickly  multiplying 
and  disseminating  the  sacred  Scriptures  which  were, 
hidden  and  rare.     But  for  the  press,  the  Reformation, 
that  most  benignant  of  events  since  the  introduction 
of  Christianity,  had  probably  never  taken  place.     By 
its  agency  in  promoting  the  revival  of  learning,  the 
way  was  prepared  for  the  overthrow  of  mental  despot- 
ism, and  for  teaching  men,  in  opposition  to   human 
authority,  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and  the  duty 
of  appealing,  in  things  sacred,  to  "the  law  and  the 
testimony."      And  when  the  Reformation   had   been 
effected,  this  agency  was  yet  more  powerfully  exerted 
in  extending   and  strengthening   it,  by  diffusing  the 
writings  of  the  reformers  and  vernacular  copies  of  the 
Bible    among    the    people.      Luther    influenced    the 
mind  of  Germany,  not  only  by  the  energies  of  the 
living  voice ;  but,  by  his  version  of  the  Scriptures — 
edition  after  edition  of  which  issued  from  the  press 


THE    PRESS.  489 

-'he  pushed  on  the  good  work  in  his  own  country 
ind  in  other  lands.  And  while  Latimer  and  Ridley, 
oy  their  preaching,  told  on  the  crowds  of  Englishmen 
that  flocked  to  hear  them,  Tyndale  and  Coverdale,  by 
their  printed  translations  of  the  Divine  word,  in- 
fluenced not  only  those  crowds,  but  tens  of  thousands 
who  were  beyond  the  reach  of  the  voice  of  the  re- 
formers. It  is  to  the  press,  as  an  instrument,  that 
we  greatly  owe  our  civil  and  religious  liberties.  By 
it,  as  well  as  by  preaching,  the  word  of  the  Lord  has 
had  free  course  and  been  glorified.  The  darkness, 
superstition,  and  despotism  of  the  middle  ages  can 
never  return ;  the  messengers  of  truth  must  run  to 
and  fro,  and  knowledge  be  increased;  and  the  na- 
tions, in  spite  of  all  temporary  checks,  must  advance 
onward  in  the  path  of  light,  liberty,  and  happiness, 
so  long  as  this  mighty  agency  pours  its  enlightening 
and  enlivening  influences  over  the  heart  of  human 
society.  Men  do  well  to  be  jealous  of  whatever  tends 
to  shackle  and  corrupt  such  a  divine  instrumentality 
as  the  press.  And  were  the  civilized^  and  especially 
the  Christianized  nations  of  the  world,  truly  grateful, 
they  would  thank  the  God  of  heaven  for  the  press, 
and  beseech  Him  to  preserve  it  free  and  uncorrupti- 
ble, and  consecrate  its  energies  to  the  cause  of  im- 
mortal truth. 

But  if  the  press  be  a  powerful  agency  for  good,  it 
is  unquestionably  a  powerful  agency  for  evil  also. 
Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceedeth  blessing  and 
cursing,  and  this  fountain  sends  forth  sweet  water 
and  bitter.     If  it    has   been  greatly  instrumental    in 


490  THE    PRESS. 

multiplying  our  Bibles,  and  propagating  divine  truth 
among  the  nations;  it  has  been,  and  is,  greatly  in- 
strumental in  disseminating  anti-Christian  sentiments 
and  pernicious  errors.  We  can  very  well  hold  that 
the  press  does  more  good  than  evil,  and  yet  maintain 
that  the  evil  is  fearfully  great.  Divine  truth  is,  from 
its  very  nature,  imperishable ;  whereas  error,  however 
mischievous  in  its  influences  for  the  time,  is  doomed 
to  destruction.  And  we  have  more  hope  of  a  few 
seeds  of  heavenly  truth,  scattered  here  and  there, 
producing  much  lasting  good,  than  fear  of  a  greater 
number  of  pernicious  principles  effecting  much  lasting 
evil.  But  the  harm,  at  certain  periods  and  in  certain 
countries,  may  greatly  preponderate  over  the  good, 
and  this  we  apprehend  is  true  in  reference  to  the 
present  state  of  the  press  in  many  lands.  It  is 
powerfully  employed  on  the  side  of  infidelity.  It  is 
ceaselessly  sending  forth  publications  of  almost  every 
shape  and  character,  like  the  sand  by  the  sea-shore 
for  number,  which  must  be  assigned  to  the  account 
of  evil. 

The  age  in  which  we  live,  is  unprecedented  for 
the  cheapness  and  abundant  supply  of  its  literature. 
The  huge  costly  tomes  which  were  within  reach  of 
comparatively  few  of  our  ancestors,  have  given  place 
to  the  small  and  low-priced  volume  which  is  accessible 
to  all.  Speculations,  decidedly  hostile  to  true  religion 
and  to  man's  best  interests,  are  no  longer  confined  to 
the  upper  and  more  refined  classes  of  society;  but 
they  have  descended  through  the  many  channels  opened 
up  by  the  prolific  press,  to  the  reading  millions  of  the 


THE  PRESS.  491 

present  time.  Our  age  is  characterized  by  the  large 
superficies  of  the  reading  mind  rather  than  by  its 
solidity  and  depth.  The  thirst  for  reading  of  a  light 
and  novel  kind  is  almost  universal  and  insatiable. 
The  poorest  artisan  must  have  a  library  out  of  which 
he  can  read,  and  one  or  more  cheap  journals  which 
he  can  devour.  The  great  competition  in  the  press 
naturally  tempts  its  conductors  to  minister  to  the 
public  tastes  whatever  these  be,  and  unhappily,  amid 
such  a  large  proprietary,  many  are  to  be  found  ready 
to  yield  fully  to  the  temptation.  Every  diversity  of 
sentiment  and  interest  is  represented  by  the  press, 
and  carried,  by  its  cheap  and  rapid  agency,  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land ;  and  the 
misfortune  is,  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  these  sen- 
timents and  interests,  thus  spread  abroad,  are  adverse 
to  that  interest  which  is  the  most  noble  and  precious 
of  all. 

It  is  the  periodical  press — that  mighty  engine  in 
the  civilized  world — that  we  have  more  immediately 
in  view,  when  speaking  of  the  press  as  the  chief 
agency  in  propagating  infidelity.  And  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  in  our  periodical  literature,  we 
have  popularized  the  anti-religious  notions  that  ap- 
pear in  a  more  abstract  form  in  books  of  a  higher 
stamp.  Before  coming  down,  however,  to  what  is 
strictly  called  the  periodical,  we  see  no  little  power  put 
forth  by  the  press  on  the  side  of  evil.  It  were  not 
difficult  to  fix  upon  a  considerable  number  of  works 
of  high  pretensions  and  extensive  circulation  that 
have   proceeded   from   the   modern  press,  which  are 


492  THE    PRESS. 

either  openly  or  insiduously  detrimental  to  f:t'/ame 
religion.  They  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  r7cpart- 
ments  of  theology,  of  literature,  and  of  ricience. 
Belonging  to  the  first  of  these,  we  have  a  )  ^rge  and 
rapidly-increasing  number  of  books  in  the  form  of 
a  philosophical  theism  appealing  to  the  educated 
mind,  the  tendency  of  which  is  to  cut  up,  root  and 
branch,  all  that  is  distinctively  Christian,  and  to 
substitute  a  self-relying  deism.  In  literature  and 
science,  we  have  not  a  little  in  which  upper  and 
under  currents  of  scepticism  are  too  perceptible; 
and  still  more  in  which  Christian  truths  and  princi- 
ples are  ignored  when  they  might  have  been  most 
fittingly  introduced.  Judging  from  many  publica- 
tions which  are  sent  forth  amid  the  full  blaze  of 
Gospel  light,  and  which  possess  this  negative  cha- 
racteristic, one  could  never  infer  that  such  a  thing 
as  Christianity  existed  among  men.  Multitudes  of 
authors  would  seemingly  reckon  it  weakness,  or 
fanaticism,  to  be  indebted  to  revelation  for  a  senti- 
ment, a  principle,  or  an  embellishment. 

The  press  in  Germany  is,  to  an  alarming  extent, 
steeped  in  infidelity.  This  holds  true  both  of  the 
higher  and  lower  literature.  "The  left-hand  school 
of  Hegel,"  remarks  Dr.  Krummacher,  "knew  how 
to  find  its  way  among  the  lowest  classes  of  the 
people,  by  making  its  philosophy  popular,  in  a  flood 
of  pamphlets,  novels,  romances,  etc.  In  consequence 
of  this,  it  is  natural  that  atheism,  which  opposes 
religion  in  every  form,  denies  the  existence  of  God, 
personal   immortality,    and    the    moral   order  of  the 


THE    PRESS.  493 

world,  should  spread  further  and  farther.  This  se- 
cret of  wickedness  had  long  sneaked  about  in  dark- 
ness; but  no  one  would  credit  it,  up  to  the  year 
1848.  Since  then,  truly,  we  have  been  convinced  of 
the  contrary."^  Numbers  of  noble  Christian  men 
in  Germany  who  are  fully  aware  of  this,  are  vigor- 
ously exerting  themselves  to  command  the  influence 
of  the  press  on  the  side  of  Gospel  truth,  and  to 
increase  the  popular  Christian  literature.  And 
while  we  may  be  thankful  to  that  land  for  its 
treasures  of  Biblical  criticism  and  profound  re- 
search, imported  to  us  through  the  press;  yet  it 
cannot  be  forgotten  that  these  treasures  have  not 
unfrequently  come  to  us  with  an  infidel  theological 
literature,  the  influence  of  which  has  been  such 
on  the  literature  of  our  own  country,  as  would  al- 
most lead  us  to  doubt  whether  the  amount  of  good 
has  not  been  overbalanced  by  the  amount  of  evil. 
It  is  unquestionably  from  this  source  that  we  have 
derived  the  spirit,  so  prevalent  among  many  of 
our  half-literary,  half-philosophical  writers,  which 
tends  to  destroy  a  historical  and  heaven-inspired 
Christianity,  and  which  would  leave  nothing  in  its 
place  but  a  kind  of  vague,  floating,  religious  senti- 
ment-^the  collective  produce  of  many  minds. 

The  press  is  bringing  us,  among  other  things, 
from  France,  a  shoal  of  light,  popular  novels,  which 
are  pregnant  with  the  seeds  of  irreligion ;  and  which 
it  is  believed  on  good  grounds,  have  had  no  small 
influence  in  producing  the  dissoluteness  so  fearfully 
*  The  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  425.  (1852.) 


494  TflE    PRESS. 

characteristic  of  modern  French  society.  The  writings 
of  Rousseau  and  the  men  of  his  school,  are  considered 
to  have  been  more  effective  than  any  other  cause  in 
producing  the  dreadful  convulsions  in  the  early  days 
of  the  great  French  Revolution.  And  the  productions 
of  Eugene  Sue,  George  Sand,  Dumas  and  othei"s 
tell  powerfully  for  anything  but  good  on  a  large 
portion  of  French  society,  and  on  the  society  of 
other  states.  The  evil  of  these  same  novels  is,  not 
merely  that  they  incapacitate  the  minds  of  the 
readers  of  them  for  anything  like  serious  thought, 
which  in  itself  is  no  trifling  injury,  but  that  an  air 
of  romance  is  thrown  around  libertinism,  profligacy 
and  crime,  well  fitted  to  sink  religion  and  exalt  vice 
in  the  estimation  of  many.  These  anti- Christian 
productions  are  wafted  far  and  wide.  Mr.  De  Vere, 
speaking  of  Athens,  says,  "The  young  men,  I  fear, 
are  somewhat  infected  with  sceptical  opinions,  a 
circumstance  which  may,  in  some  measure,  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  attention  paid  to  French  litera- 
ture. French  novels  are  the  works  which  chiefly 
abound  in  the  bookshops.  Can  one  imagine  a 
greater  misfortune,  especially  to  so  young  a  nation  ?" 
These  works  have  come  in,  like  a  deluge,  on  America ; 
and  they  are  making  their  way  in  our  own  country, 
destructive  of  everything  deserving  the  name  of 
morality  and  religion.  In  the  catalogues  of  cheap 
circulating  libraries,  they  are  to  be  found  side 
by  side  with  books  of  which  it  may  be  said  that 
they  are  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and  white — 
reminding  one   of  the   tempter   and   the   Holy    One 


THE    PRESS.  495 

in  the  wilderness.  And  it  generally  happens  that 
where  there  is  a  relish  for  the  one,  there  is  a  dislike 
for  the  other. 

Of  our  own  home  produce,  we  have  not  a  few 
works  of  note  through  which  runs,  either  broadly  or 
stealthily,  a  vein  of  infidel  philosophy.  Some  of 
them  must  be  assigned  to  the  idealistic,  and  others 
of  them  to  the  sensational  school.  Mr.  Carlyle, 
whose  influence  on  thinking  minds  of  a  peculiar  cast 
is  perhaps  greater  than  that  of  any  living  writer,  is 
the  acknowledged  chief  of  the  former.  He,  as  we 
have  already  remarked,  says  nothing  disrespectful  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ;  yet  he  may  not  unjustly  be 
regarded  as  waging  under  covert,  a  war  against  the 
claims  of  a  historical  Christianity,  or  as  endeavor- 
ing to  bring  men  to  look  upon  all  religious  creeds  as 
having  the  same  subjective  origin,  and  to  confound 
or  identify  earnestness  with  truth.  What  poor  John 
Sterling  says  to  Mr.  Carlyle  in  his  last  brief  letter — 
a  letter  "fit  to  be  forever  memorable  to  the  receiver 
of  it " — could  doubtless  be  said  by  multitudes  of  indi- 
viduals who  have  come  under  his  influence :  "  towards 
me  it  is  still  more  true  than  towards  England  that  no 
man  has  been  and  done  like  you."^  Great,  indeed, 
is  the  responsibility  of  his  leadership.  Such  a  man 
raises  up  a  host  of  imitators  who  are  quick  to  discern 
and  eager  to  lay  hold  of  the  worst  part  of  his  teaching, 
to  obtrude  it  at  every  point,  and  to  carry  it  undisguis- 
edly  to  such  an  extreme  as  he  himself  would  probably 
deem  offensive. 

'  Life  of  Sterling,  p.  334. 


496  THE    PRESS. 

"We  should  think,"  says  Mr.  Henry  Rogers,  "that 
some  of  these  more  powerful  minds  must  be  by  this 
time  ashamed  of  that  ragged  regiment  of  most  shallow 
thinkers,  and  obscure  writers  and  talkers,  who  at  pres- 
ent infest  our  literature,  and  whose  parrot-like  repe- 
tition of  their  own  stereotyped  phraseology,  mingled 
with  some  barbarous  infusion  of  half- Anglicised  Ger- 
man, threatens  to  form  as  odious  a  cant  as  ever  pol- 
luted the  stream  of  thought,  or  disfigured  the  purity  of 
language.  ...  As  in  Byron's  day  there  were  thousands 
to  whom  the  world  '  was  a  blank '  at  twenty  or  there- 
abouts, and  of  whose  'dark  imaginings,'  as  Macaulay 
says,  the  waste  was  prodigious;  so  now  there  are 
hundreds  of  dilettanti  pantheists,  mystics,  and  scep- 
tics, to  whom  everything  is  a  'sham,'  an  'unreality;' 
who  tell  us  that  the  world  stands  in  need  of  a  great 
'prophet,'  a  'seer,'  a  'true  priest,'  a  'large  soul,'  a 
'god-like  soul' — who  shall  dive  into  'the  depths  of 
the  human  consciousness,'  and  whose  'utterances' 
shall  rouse  the  human  mind  from  the  'cheats  and 
frauds '  which  have  hitherto  everywhere  practised  on 
its  simplicity.  They  tell  us,  in  relation  to  philosophy, 
religion,  and  especially  in  relation  to  Christianity, 
that  all  that  has  been  believed  by  mankind  has  been 
believed  only  on  '  empirical '  grounds ;  and  that  the 
old  answers  to  difficulties  will  do  no  longer.  They 
shake  their  heads  at  such  men  as  Clarke,  Paley,  Butler, 
and  declare  that  such  arguments  as  theirs  will  not  sat- 
isfy them."^ 

The  existence  of  such  a  "ragged  regiment,"  never- 

'  Kogers'  Essays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  316. 


THE   PRESS.  4:97 

theless,  shows  the  influence  of  one  or  two  gr<iat 
minds,  and  the  grave  responsibility  they  incur  in 
sending  abroad,  by  means  of  the  press,  thoughts  that 
are  openly  or  covertly  hostile  to  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
The  influence  of  Lord  Byron  has  passed,  but  the 
misanthropy  and  voluptuousness  of  his  poetry  did 
their  work  of  mischief;  and  the  multitudes  of  young 
persons,  out  of  an  enthusiastic  admiration  for  him, 
were  formed  to  a  character  the  very  reverse  of  the 
ethics  of  the  gospel.  The  influence  of  those 
writers  who  are  contending  against  the  paramount 
claims  of  historical  Christianity,  will  also  pass  away; 
but  they,  too,  meanwhile,  perform  their  part  in 
keeping  men  from  the  faith  of  the  truth  and  the 
love  of  the  Saviour.  How  many  of  our  polite  writers 
have  gone,  or  are  advancing,  into  eternity,  as  John 
Foster  says,  "under  the  charge  of  having  employed 
their  genius,  as  the  magicians  their  enchantments 
against  Moses,  to  counteract  the  Saviour  of  the 
world."^ 

Of  our  modern  productions  of  the  sensational 
school,  "Combe's  Constitution  of  Man,"  if  not  the 
most  profound  and  philosophical,  has  doubtless  been 
the  most  popularized  and  extensively  circulated.  The 
naturalism  of  this  work,  as  we  have  seen,  is  broad 
and  undisguised.  Containing,  as  it  does,  many  valu- 
able remarks  on  the  operation  of  natural  laws  and 
the  consequences  of  infringing  them,  it,  by  making 
these  laws  explanatory  of  all  phenomena,  explodes 
the  idea  of  an  interposing  and  superintending  Provi- 

'  Foster's  Essay,  p.  341. 
32 


498  THE   PRESS. 

dence;  so  that,  had  it  been  possible,  God  might  as 
well  have  ceased  to  exist  after  the  creation  of  the 
world.  Upwards  of  eighty  thousand  copies  of  this 
work  have  issued  from  the  press  of  our  own  country, 
besides  having  obtained  a  wide  circulation  in  America, 
and  having  been  translated  into  various  foreign  Ian 
guages.  Having  had  the  advantage  of  a  liberal  be- 
quest, it  has  appeared,  in  numerous  cheap  editions, 
for  circulation  among  the  people,  and  even  for  intro- 
duction into  the  schools ;  so  that,  in  so  far  as  a  cheap 
press  is  concerned,  nothing  has  been  wanting  to 
leaven  the  mass  with  its  principles.  To  this  work, 
despite  its  many  useful  facts  and  lessons,  multi 
tudes  of  our  reading  artisans  are  indebted  for  those 
popular  infidel  objections  which  are  urged  against 
the  doctrine  of  divine  Providence  and  special  prayer. 
Sensationalism  is  doubtless  on  the  wane,  and  the 
triumph  of  Combe,  if  we  mistake  not,  has  passed; 
but  it  were  vain  to  deny  that  such  works  as  the 
"  Constitution  of  Man,"  pervaded  as  they  are  with 
principles  antagonistic  to  spiritual  Christianity,  have 
exerted  a  disastrous  influence  on  many  minds.  And 
such  influences,  we  may  be  assured,  are  not  oblit- 
erated, like  the  wake  of  a  ship,  by  the  next  rolling 
wave. 

Besides  such  works  as  these,  which  address  them- 
selves more  especially  to  a  peculiar  cast  of  cultivated 
minds,  or  to  our  reading  artisans,  there  is  a  class  of 
books,  of  recent  growth,  designed  for  the  village  poor, 
in  which  are  insidiously  taught  tractarian  principles, 
the  tendency  of  which  is  to  substitute  a  merely  cere- 


THE   PRESS.  499 

monial  Christianity  for  the  spiritual  Gospel  of  Christ. 
Archbishop  Whateley,  in  his  "  Cautions  for  the  Times," 
remarks  of  the  promoters  of  Tractism,  that,  "at  first 
they  gained  an  almost  unexampled  command  of  the 

public  press Nor  was  it  only  by  the  open  and 

direct  inculcation  of  their  opinions  they  made  way 
for  themselves.  That  which  one  of  the  original  con- 
spiritors  aptly  called  '  the  poisoning  system '  proved 
even  still  more  effectual.  Works  were  produced  in 
almost  every  style  of  composition,  to  catch  the  un- 
wary, and  the  tenets  of  tractism  cautiously  infused 
into  them  all,  so  as  to  steal  upon  the  reader  when  he 
least  expected  them;  when  he  took  up  the  volume 
only  to  verify  some  fact  of  ancient  history,  or  to 
beguile  an  hour  with  an  amusing  tale.  Their  aim, 
indeed,  was  to  create  a  literature  for  themselves,  and 
exercise  an  influence  over  everything  that  came 
before  the  public  mind,  from  the  discussions  of  the 
severest  science  down  to  the  songs  and  stories  of  the 
nursery."^ 

The  class  of  books  to  which  we  refer  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  carrying  on  of  "the  poisoning  system." 
A  simple  story  of  village  life,  full  of  -pleasing  inci- 
dents, and  told  in  an  agreeable  style,  is  made,  with 
no  little  cleverness,  the  medium  of  infusing  into  the 
minds  of  unlettered  rustics  the  tractarian  poison. 
The  curate  and  rector  who  figures  in  the  tale,  does 
great  and  good  things.  The  parish,  which  he  found 
like  a  barren  and  neglected  wilderness,  becomes, 
under  his  assiduous  ministry,  a  fruitful  field  which 
*  Cautions  for  the  Times,  p.  294. 


500  THE    PRESS. 

the  Lord  hath  blessed.  Of  course,  he  is  a  tractarian. 
He  discourses,  in  a  winning  way,  about  the  efficacy 
of  the  sacraments,  the  reverence  due  to  the  authority 
of  the  church,  the  divinity  that  hedges  round  the 
prayer-book,  and  such  like.  The  atonement,  contrary 
to  Scripture,  is  thrown  in  the  back-ground,  and 
made  a  sort  of  reserve-doctrine ;  and  the  faith 
inculcated  is  faith  in  the  mere  ceremonials  of  the 
Gospel,  not  faith  in  what,  in  the  estimation  of  apos- 
tolic men,  constitutes  its  very  core — the  doctrine  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified.  In  these  books,  to 
quote  from  one  of  our  Reviews,^  there  is  an  attempt 
insiduously  made  to  exalt  "  the  very  brick  and  mortar 
of  the  church,  at  the  expense  of  spiritual  religion. 
A  distressing  formalism  in  them  very  destructive  of 
the  pure  and  simple  faith — the  leaning  upon  the 
merits  of  the  Redeemer — which  is  emphatically  the 
'religion  of  the  poor.'"  We  mark  this,  then,  as  an 
agency  to  make  men  formalists,  and  which  may,  by  a 
not  uncommon  reaction,  lead  the  more  thoughtful 
among  them,  in  their  disgust  at  "  church  principles," 
to  repudiate  Christianity  itself 

But  we  tujrn  to  the  Periodical.  In  this  depart- 
ment of  the  press,  we  find  the  strongest  combined 
agency  for  propagating  anti-Christian  principles. 
The  strength  expended  on  periodical  literature, 
in  our  age,  is  prodigious ;  and  marvellous  is  the 
pliancy  of  this  great  agency.  The  newspaper,  which, 
for  the  wide  range  of  its  influence,  and  as  an  in- 
dispensable element  in  modern  civilization,  has  been 
'  North  British,  May,  1852. 


THE   PRESS.  601 

aptly  called  "the  fourth  Estate,  is  the  creation  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  The  first  regular  newspaper 
started  into  existence  about  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
James  the  first,  and  but  shortly  after  the  death  of 
Shakspeare.  From  the  great  English  Revolution, 
when  newspapers  appeared  in  such  numbers,  jour- 
nalism has  constituted  a  power  which  has  told 
mightily  on  society."^  But  it  is  in  our  time  that  this 
power  has  waxed  so  strong,  both  in  our  own  country 
and  on  the  Continent.  With  the  commencement  of 
the  eighteenth  century  appeared  the  Review.  Then 
followed  the  British  Essayists  who  exerted  a  powerful 
influence  on  the  reading  mind  of  the  age.  They 
sternly  reproved  the  follies,  and  were  influential  in  cor- 
recting the  vices,  of  their  times.  But  they  neglected 
the  opportunities  which  they  had,  of  thoroughly 
leavening  their  elegant  moral  papers  with  the  evan- 
gelical element  of  that  religion  which  they  professed 
to  venerate.  Since  that  period,  a  large  class  of 
readers  has  risen  up.  Such  men  as  Addison  and 
Johnson  addressed  themselves  chiefly  to  the  middle 
and  upper  classes,  while  they  left  the  masses  ranging 
below  them  almost  untouched ;  but  the  Press  is  now, 
in  a  very  extensive  degree,  the  Press  of  the  people.  By 
its  cheap  periodical  literature,  it  becomes  all  things 
to  them,  appealing  in  every  diversity  of  form,  to  their 
reason,  their  passions,  their  prejudices  and  their 
interests.  Any  estimate  of  the  influence  of  the 
periodical  press  that  should  leave  out  this  large 
superficies  of  the  reading  mind,  would  be  as  faulty  as 

'  Hunt's  Fourth  Estate. 


602  THE    PRESS. 

the  survey  of  such  a  city  as  Edinburgh  which,  while 
embracing  the  Princes  and  Georges  Streets,  over- 
looked the  Canongates  and  Cowsgates. 

We  are  not  insensible  to  the  vast  amount  of  heal- 
ing influences  that  proceed  from  the  periodical  press. 
The  river  of  the  water  of  life  is  pouring  forth  a  rich 
supply  through  various  channels  opened  up  by  this 
agency.  But  statistical  facts  go  to  prove  that  the 
channels,  in  which  flow  the  poisonous  streams,  arc 
yet  more  numerous,  and  that  the  supply  is  much 
more  abundant.  The  periodical  press  has  expanded 
prodigiously  within  the  last  twenty  or  thirty  years, 
and  the  expansion  on  the  side  of  evil  has  greatly 
preponderated  over  that  on  the  side  of  good.  No 
one  doubts  that  this  has  been  the  case  in  France. 
"  In  our  important  periodical  literature,"  said  Pastor 
Boucher,  when  starting  a  daily  Protestant  paper  in 
Paris,  a  few  years  ago,  "  the  first  angle  is  occupied 
by  infidelity  in  its  various  shapes — indifierence,  ma- 
terialism, scepticism;  the  second  angle  belofigs  to 
Roman  Catholicism;  the  third,  the  Biblical  angle, 
has  remained  empty — we  must  fill  it  up."  The  news- 
paper press  occupies,  generally,  a  more  commanding 
position,  and  a  larger  place  in  the  literature  of  France, 
than  in  that  of  any  other  European  country.  The 
lower  classes  of  French  society  are  much  more  gene- 
rally engrossed  with  political  and  social  questions, 
than  the  same  classes  in  England.  The  public  jour- 
nals in  France,  accordingly,  pass  through  many  more 
hands  than  they  do  with  us.  Every  Frenchman  is  a 
politician.     In   the  workshops   where  large   numbers 


THE    PRESS.  503 

bers  of  men  are  gathered  togetlier,  it  is  no  uncom- 
mon tiling  for  one  artisan  to  read  tlie  paper  aloud 
for  the  benefit  of  all.  The  French  journals  com- 
mand some  of  the  first  rate  writers  in  the  country, 
and  the  pens  of  the  celebrated  novelist  and  of  the 
distinguished  statesman  are  employed  in  their  pages. 
But  their  influence  is,  for  the  most  part,  hostile  to 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Some  of  the  most  powerful 
Parisian  Journals  are  perpetually  wavering  from  Ro- 
manism to  Voltarianism,  and  from  Voltarianism  to 
Romanism.  The,  "  Constitutionnel,"  at  the  time  when 
its  circulation  was  the  largest  of  any  paper  in  France, 
was  actively  putting  forth  the  opinions  and  principles 
of  the  infidel  chiefs  And,  at  the  present  moment, 
when  priestly  pretensions  are  becoming  more  and 
more  arrogant,  the  infidelity  of  many  of  the  Journals 
is  reviving. 

But  it  is  the  feuilleton,  or  light  French  novel,  chap- 
ter after  chapter  of  which  appears  in  the  columns  of 
the  daily  papers,  that  constitute  the  chief  attraction 
of  the  journal  to  myriads  of  men  and  women.  It 
is  in  this  department  of  the  paper,  separated  from 
the  political  articles  and  mere  news  by  a  broad  line, 
that  Dumas,  Sand,  Eugene  Sue,  and  writers  of  such 
stamp,  produce  each  their  dozen  or  eighteen  volumes 
of  tales,  yearly ;  the  tendency  of  which  is  to  make 
their  readers  anything  but  grave  and  thoughtful, 
moral  and  religious.  In  reading  lately  a  romance  of 
the  last-named  author,  with  a  view  of  giving  forth  an 
impartial  judgment,  we  seemed  to  be  wading  through 

'  Britisli  Quarterly,  No.  6.  (Journalism  in  France.) 


504  THE   TRESS. 

some  of  tlie  foulest  mud  that  ever  we  met  with  in 
cheap  literature;  and  it  became  at  last  a  question 
with  us,  whether  we  were  justifiable  in  making  the 
attempt.  And  yet  no  volume  in  a  large  circulating 
library  had  been  more  frequently  handled  than  the 
one  referred  to.  In  the  feuilletons  of  the  newspaper, 
marriage  has  been  declaimed  against,  nauseous  love- 
stories  have  been  told,  the  poor  and  laboring  classes 
have  been  excited  against  the  rich  and  noble,  the 
most  startling  pictures  of  depravity  have  been  drawn, 
the  most  Utopian  schemes  of  social  amelioration  have 
been  advocated,  the  most  sacred  facts  in  the  Gospel 
History  have  been  parodied,  and  the  bitterest  sarcasm 
and  mockery  have  been  thrown  upon  the  holiest  doc- 
trines of  religion.^  Millions  of  readers  of  French 
papers  in  and  out  of  France,  come  day  after  day,  un- 
der the  influence  of  this  anti-Christian  agency.  We 
can  conceive  no  more  effectual  barrier  against  serious 
thought  or  religious  principles,  and  no  more  effective 
instrumentality  in  perverting  public  taste  and  morals, 
than  these  newspaper  romances.  Of  these,  multitudes 
are  republished  in  our  own  country,  and  in  company 
with  less  objectionable  things,  swell  the  tide  of  our 
cheap  literature. 

Matters,    in   this  respect,    are   much   the    same    in 

'  M.  Alexandre  Dumas,  a  writer  who  panders  to  tlie  public  taste, 
however  vitiated,  for  the  sake  of  money,  has  been  publishing  for 
some  time  a  romance  of  a  most  profane  character  in  the  columns  of 
the  Constitutionnel — a  daily  paper  said  to  be  circulating  at  the  rate 
of  from  30,000  to  40,000.  The  immoral  tendency  of  the  romance 
has  been  so  glaring  that  its  publication  has  been  checked  by  a 
hint  from  high  quarters. 


THE    PRESS.  505 

Germany  as  in  France.  Socialism  with  its  various 
conflicting  theories  and  broadly-marked  irreligion, 
the  romance,  whose  heroes  embody  every  character- 
istic except  the  Christian  and  the  human,  have 
everywhere  possessed  themselves,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  of  the  Periodical  Press;  and  through  this 
channel  have  deluged  with  a  flood  of  immorality  and 
irreligion  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  What 
John  Foster  once  said  of  the  socialist  publications  of 
our  own  country,  is  yet  more  truly  applicable  to  the 
greater  proportion  of  the  periodical  literature  of  the 
Continental  Press.  "  The  thing  seems  like  a  moral 
epidemic,  breathed  from  hell,  destined  to  be  permitted 
for  a  time  to  sweep  a  portion  of  the  people  to  destruc- 
tion, in  defiance  of  all  remedial  interference."  Would 
that  the  remedial  interference  in  those  lands  were  but 
as  powerful  as  with  ourselves ! 

Our  own  periodical  press,  however,  is  employed  to 
a  large  extent  on  the  side  of  evil.  Unquestionable 
statistics  have  shown  this  to  be  the  case.  No  doubt, 
as  the  tone  of  society  in  our  country  has  become 
much  more  healthy  within  the  last  twenty  or  thirty 
years,  many  departments  of  the  periodical  press  have 
participated  in  the  favorable  reaction.  Some  jour- 
nals of  an  extensive  circulation,  though  yet  far  from 
being  what  they  ought  to  be,  present  a  favorable 
contrast  to  what  they  once  were.  Still,  the  quantity 
both  of  our  stamped  and  unstamped  periodical  litera- 
ture preponderates  greatly  on  the  anti-Christian  side. 
In  this  estimate  we  unhesitatingly  include  those  pub- 
lications which  pour  contempt  on  the  Christian  Sab- 


506  THE    PRESS. 

bath,  diverting  it  from  its  ordained  uses  as  a  day  of 
holy  rest  and  heavenly  training,  to  one  of  mere  bodily 
relaxation  and  mental  diversion ;  and  that  larger  class 
which  would  make  men  religious  without  any  regard 
to  the  atonement  of  Christ  and  the  influences  of  the 
Spirit;  as  well  as  the  avowedly  infidel  and  grossly 
demoralizing.  These  classes  combined  constitute 
an  amount  of  agency,  in  conflict  with  the  spirit  and 
claims  of  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament,  of 
greater  power  than  many  men  are  apt  to  imagine. 
The  Edinburgh  Review,  which  is  not  chargeable  with 
countenancing  exaggerated  statements  in  these  mat- 
ters, said,  about  two  years  ^go,  "the  total  annual 
issue  of  immoral  publications  has  been  stated  at 
twenty-nine  millions,  being  more  than  the  total 
issues  of  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowl- 
edge, the  Religious  Tract  Society,  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  Scottish  Bible  Society,  the 
Trinitarian  Bible  Society,  and  some  seventy  religious 
magazines."  More  recently,  it  has  been  affirmed  that, 
during  the  year  1851,  the  purely  infidel  press  in 
London  issued  publications  to  the  amount  of  more 
tl^an  twelve  millions;  the  issues  of  avowed  atheism, 
during  the  same  period,  exceeded  six  hundred  and 
forty  thousand ;  and,  in  addition  to  these,  were  issued 
upwards  of  seventeen  millions  and  a  half  of  a  nega- 
tive or  corrupting  character.  All  this  is  exclusive  of 
what  are  properly  called  newspapers.  Indeed,  in  such 
influential  organs  as  the  Times^  the  Daily  News  and 
the  Morning  Chronicle^  some  of  these  corrupt  periodical 
issues  have  been  subjected  to  a  withering  exposure. 


THE   PRESS.  507 

But  the  Newspaper  Press  cannot  be  altogether  ex- 
culpated. It  was  shown,  but  a  few  years  ago,  that, 
according  to  the  official  stamp  returns  of  1843,  the 
weekly  papers  which  had  the  largest  circulation,  were 
of  an  irreligious  and  demoralizing  character.^  Mr. 
Bucknall,  in  his  evidence  before  the  select  committee 
on  newspaper  stamps,  in  May,  1851,  adverting  to  one 
of  these,  now  somewhat  changed  in  its  character,  but 
still  far  from  being  unobjectionable,  said  that,  twenty 
years  ago,  it  was  "almost  a  blasphemous,  scurrilous, 
and  contemptible  paper,  but  with  an  enormous  circu- 
lation." This  paper,  according  to  the  stamp  returns 
of  1850,  has  considerably  decreased  in  circulation 
though  that  is  still  large ;  thus  showing  that  the  days 
of  its  worst  character  were  the  days  of  its  greatest 
influence.  Another  of  these,  ministering  much  more 
to  the  sporting  than  to  the  moral  life,  and  tending  to 
nourish  the  ignoble  passions  of  man,  has  of  late  been 
on  the  increase,  having  had  an  issue  of  stamps  for 
1850  amounting  to  considerably  more  than  a  million 
and  a  quarter.  While  a  third  paper,  circulating  at 
the  rate  of  about  thirteen  thousand  weekly,  openly 
invades  the  sanctities  of  the  Sabbath,  and  directs 
men's  thoughts  anywhere  than  to  things  above. 
These  we  have  noticed  as  of  a  demoralizing  tendency. 
But  how  many  possess  a  negative  characteristic,  say- 
ing little  or  nothing  for  or  against  the  cause  of  the 
gospel.  It  has  been  said  of  the  English  journal,  that 
"it  is  a  great  mental  camera,  which  throws  a  picture 
of  the  whole  world  upon  a  single  sheet  of  paper.'' 
'  The  Power  of  the  Press,  (1847.) 


508  THE    PRESS. 

And  yet,  witli  a  few  noble  exceptions,  that  mental 
camera  either  gives  no  representation  of  the  Christian 
world,  or  a  very  distorted  one ;  or  throws  forth  pic- 
tures, the  direct  influence  of  which  is  to  make  men 
anything  but  Christians.  Of  the  seventy  millions  of 
newspapers  which,  Mr.  Dickens  in  his  Household 
Words,  says,  pass  through  all  the  post-offices  every 
year,  from  how  many  could  we  gather  anything  like 
an  account  of  the  working  of  the  most  beneficent  of 
all  agencies  in  the  world — the  missionary  enterprise  ? 
Indeed,  from  many  of  our  public  journals,  a  man 
could  scarcely  infer  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as 
Christianity  in  the  earth ;  and  to  a  good  man  it  were 
a  melancholy  thought  did  the  actual  world  contain 
no  better  elements  of  regeneration  than  are  repre- 
sented to  us  by  the  greater  bulk  of  the  newspaper 
press. 

But  it  is  in  the  reading  for  the  million — the  cheap 
unstamped  publications — that  we  find  the  greatest 
amount  of  infidel  and  demoralizing  influences.  Mr. 
Knight,  the  respectable  publisher  in  Fleet-street, 
stated,  not  long  ago:  "During  the  last  five  years, 
while  cheap  religious  periodicals  have  made  limited 
progress,  either  in  numbers  or  interest,  the  corrupt 
printing  press  has  been  unceasingly  at  work.  The 
present  circulation  in  London  of  immoral  unstamped 
publications  of  a  halfpenny  to  three-halfpence  each, 
must  be  upwards  of  400,000  weekly,  which  would 
give  the  enormous  issue  of  20,800,000  yearly!  In 
addition  to  these  there  is  the  weekly  importation  of 
French  print  and  novels,  of  so  indecent  a  character 


THE   PRESS.  509 

that  once  they  could  only  be  obtained  by  stealth,  but 
may  now  be  purchased  openly  from  any  vendors  of 
the  other  periodicals."  To  a  large  proportion  of  this 
literature  for  the  people  might  be  applied  the  lan- 
guage which  Burke  applied  to  the  French  papers  of 
his  time : — "  The  writers  of  these  papers,  indeed,  for 
the  greater  part,  are  either  unknown  or  in  contempt ; 
but  they  are  like  a  battery  in  which  the  stroke  of  any 
one  ball  produces  no  great  impression,  but  the  amount 
of  continual  repetition  is  decisive." 

We  may  classify  the  anti- Christian  cheap  literature 
thus: — There  is  first,  the  avowedly  infidel.  Publica- 
tions of  this  class  are  circulating  at  an  extremely 
cheap  rate,  among  the  artisans  in  our  large  towns,  the 
object  of  which,  in  the  language  of  one  of  them  (the 
recognized  organ  of  the  secularist  party  in  London 
and  the  provinces),  is  to  induce  the  people  "  to  shake 
off  religious  belief — to  cut  the  cable  by  which  theol- 
ogy has  a  hold  on  practical  affairs,  and  to  let  theology 
float  away  to  the  undefined  future  to  which  it  belongs." 
Instead  of  finding  much  calm  and  fair  reasoning  in 
this  organ,  as  the  title  would  lead  us  to  expect,  we 
have  the  old  dishonest  trick,  so  much  resorted  to  by 
Paine,  of  villifying  Christianity  by  identifying  it  with 
its  corruptions;  and  the  usual  kind  and  quantity  of 
raillery  aimed  at  anxious  inquirers  and  praying  men 
and  women,  the  only  excuse  for  which  is  that  such 
weapons  are  more  easily  wielded  against  the  religion 
of  Christ  than  arguments.  ^'-  Excelsior  P''  is  surely  an 
ironical  motto  for  an  oracle  which  forbids  us  to  look  up 
to  the  skies  and  beyond  the  stars ;  and  which  enjoins  us 


510  THE   PRESS. 

to  let  God  and  futurity  alone  as  we  have  no  irresistible 
evidence  in  proof  of  either.  Most  unquestionably, 
the  motto  should  have  been — "Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die."  Were  the  mischief  produced 
by  such  publications  only  proportionate  to  the  talent 
displayed  in  them,  they  might  be  allowed  to  pass  on 
unnoticed  to  the  oblivion  to  which  there  are  hastening. 
But  it  is  not  so.  Their  sentiments  find  a  welcome 
response  in  many  minds  that  have  remained  indif- 
ferent or  hostile  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  and,  in 
workshops  and  factories,  they  have  done  no  incon- 
siderable amount  of  evil.  An  atheistic  secularism,  at 
the  present  day,  is  wielding,  with  renewed  vigor,  the 
penny  periodical  press  ;  and,  by  this  means,  is  endeav- 
oring to  leaven  the  people,  especially  in  manufacturing 
districts,  with  its  earthy  principles. 

The  second  class  may  be  distinguished  as  polluting. 
Publications  of  this  class  pander  to  the  sickliest 
curiosity  and  the  basest  passions.  Vice  is  here 
tricked  out  in  all  its  alluring  attire.  The  reader 
is  conducted  through  some  of  the  dissolute  scenes 
of  fashionable  life,  or  his  sympathies  are  enlisted 
in  favor  of  some  desperado  who  has  been  the  hero 
of  the  den,  and  whose  hair-breadth  escapes  have 
thrown  an  air  of  romance  around  his  life  of  crime 
•and  infamy.  The  readers  of  this  class  of  polluting 
publications  are  much  more  numerous  than  the 
former.  They  address  themselves  to  the  lowest  of 
the  people,  demand  not  the  least  eifort  of  thought, 
and  are  ever  hot  with  stirring  scenes  and  incidents. 
Among   the   myriads   of  young   men   and  women  in 


THE    PRESS.  511 

the  metropolis  who  are  able  to  read,  but  who  seldom 
or  never  appear  in  the  house  of  God,  this  low,  cor- 
rupting literature  has  a  very  large  circulation.  "If 
you  go,"  said  Mr.  Bucknall  before  the  select  com- 
mittee on  newspaper  stamps,  "into  some  of  what 
we  call  the  back  slums,  and  different  places  both 
in  London  and  in  provincial  towns,  you  will  see  very 
often  shops  open  on  the  Sunday  morning.  Those 
are  out  of  the  general  reach  of  observation;  and 
unless  you  go  there  and  positively  watch  the  sale, 
it  is  impossible  that  you  can  have  any  idea  of  the 
amount  of  moral  depravity  of  these  things."  Mr. 
Mayhew,  in  his  instructive  work,  entitled  "London 
Labor  and  the  London  Poor,"  has  made  some 
startling  disclosures  in  reference  to  the  literature  of 
the  masses.  Speaking  of  the  costermongers — a  class 
numbering  about  30,000,  living  "in  a  state  of  almost 
brutish  ignorance" — he  says,  "  What  they  love  best 
to  listen  to — and,  indeed,  what  they  are  most  eager 
for — are  Reynolds'  periodicals,  especially  the  "Mys- 
teries of  the  Court."  One  street-seller  assured  him 
that  his  master  alone  "used  to  get  rid  of  10,000 
copies  of  such  works  on  a  Saturday  night  and  a 
Sunday  morning;"^  —  the  principal  customers  being 
young  men.  Mr.  Abel  Heywood,  of  Manchester, 
through  whose  hands  pass  about  ten  per  cent,  of 
these  cheap  publications — supplying  the  surrounding 
towns  to  the  extent  of  twenty  miles — has  shown, 
in  his  evidence  before  the  select  committee,  that  the 
circulation  of  the  penny  vitiating  periodicals  among 
'  London  Labor  and  the  London  Poor,  vol.  i    pp.  25,  290. 


512  THE    PRESS. 

the  manufacturing  districts  is  very  large.  And  one 
or  two  works  of  this  kind,  we  are  informed,  meet 
with  a  readier  sale  in  Edinburgh  than  almost  any 
other  cheap  publication.  To  this  corrupt  class  of 
reading  must  also  be  assigned  the  "gallows"  litera- 
ture. The  appetite  for  this,  especially  among  the 
reading  poor,  is  enormous.  The  morbid  feeling 
about  criminals  has,  of  late  years,  been  strong;  and 
the  press — even  that  which  claims  to  be  respectable 
— ^has,  by  its  pictorial  illustrations,  and  minute 
details  of  criminal  deeds,  largely  ministered  to  it. 
It  is  stated  that  no  less  than  four  millions  and  a  half 
of  broadsheets,  relating  to  two  late  principal  exe- 
cutions, were  printed  and  got  up  in  London,  and 
sold  throughout  the  country.  The  chief  way  to 
check  or  counteract  the  influence  of  this  pernicious 
trash,  is,  as  Mr.  Mayhew  hints,  in  the  "respectable" 
press  becoming  a  more  healthful  public  instructor. 
In  all  this  penny  literature,  we  have  an  agency 
which,  like  an  army  of  locusts,  eats  up  all  that  is 
healthful  wherever  it  alights,  and  leaves  nothing 
behind  but  pollution  and  desolation.-^ 

•  The  "  Cliristiau  Times,"  speaking  of  the  "  Acherontic  Shades 
of  the  Metropolis,"  and  especially  of  those  "normal  schools  of 
vice  and  profligacy  in  London — the  low  theatres,"  says :  "  Of  the 
penny  theatres,  the  abused  power  of  the  press  is  the  main,  if  not 
the  sole,  cause.  In  none  of  these  houses  is  the  histrionic  literature 
of  the  more  decent  school  represented,  for  the  obvious  reason  that 
it  is  not  sufficiently  prurient.  The  songs,  the  dramas,  and  the 
farces,  of  the  Holywell  Street  and  the  Reynolds  schools,  are 
exclusively  used  at  the  penny  theatres.  Instead  of  Richard  the 
Third,  Hotspur,  Wolsey,  Catharine  of  Aragon,  Oliver  Cromwell 
and  the  ideal  personages  of  the   modern  drama,  we  only  find  Jack 


THE    PRESS.  513 

There  is  a  third  class  which,  in  regard  to  moral 
and  religious  influences,  may  be  called  latitudinarian. 
In  this  class  we  have  none  of  the  broadly-marked 
and  openly-avowed  infidelity  of  the  first,  nor  any 
of  the  grossly-depraved  and  deeply-polluting  scenes 
of  the  second.  Light  reading,  in  the  shape  of 
novels  and  romances,  is  the  staple  commodity;  and 
this  of  a  kind  calculated  to  make  men  and  women 
anything  but  wise  and  thoughtful;  while  (in  the 
way  of  warp  and  woof),  threads  of  thought,  connected 
with  religious  indifferentism  or  a  false  liberalism, 
run  throughout.  This  class  of  cheap  literature  is  a 
large  and  growing  one,  and  seems,  in  many  places, 
to  be  supplanting,  in  a  great  extent,  publications 
of  a  decidedly  immoral  kind.  To  this  class  be- 
longs the  ^''Family  Herald^''  a  miscellaneous  journal, 
which  is  said  to  have  the  largest  sale  of  any  of  the 
penny  or  cheap  publications  among  the  working 
classes.  The  weekly  circulation  of  this  pennyworth, 
as  stated  in  evidence  before  the  select  committee 
referred  to,  is  more  than  two  hundred  thousand. 
Of  these,  somewhere  about  fourteen  thousand  cir- 
culate weekly  in  Manchester  and  the  neighborhood. 
"  There  is  a  peculiarity  about  the  '  Family  Herald,' " 
said  the  extensive  Manchester  bookseller,  in  his 
evidence,    "it   addresses   itself    to   the   fairer   sex  in 

Sheppard,  Turpin,  Carew,  Tom  Shingle,  Rush,  Mrs.  Manning,  and 
others,  ^ho  have  risen  above  the  ordinary  heroes  of  the  NewgaU. 
Calendar ;  and  these  are  neither  exhibited  to  elicit  the  self-delusions 
or  the  certain  penalties  of  crime,  but  to  excite  compassion  for  ilic 
criminal,  or  to  smother  all  possible  reflection  by  terminating  a  tragedy 
with  a  grimace." — Christian  Times,  Nov.  23,  1850. 

33 


514  THE    PRESS. 

a  great  measure,  and  to  that  perhaps  may  be  attrib- 
uted  its  very  large   circulation."       It  has,  however, 
"facts   and   philosophy   for    gentlemen,"    as   well    as 
"hints  and  entertainments  for  ladies."     Not  the  least 
engrossing  part  of  this  "domestic  magazine,"  as  the 
"Herald"  itself  testifies,  and  as  we  know  from  ob- 
servation, is   the   large   space  devoted   to   replies   to 
correspondents.     The  useful   and   the  ludicrous   here 
meet.     These  we   let   pass.     They  may  be  "interest- 
ing to  all — offensive  to  none."     But  religious  doubts 
are    here    solved,    and    interpretations    of    Scripture 
are   here   given;    and   thus,  through  the   channel  in 
which  flows  the  exhilarating  beverage  runs  also  the 
diluted   poison.     The  "Family  Herald's"  brief  "dis- 
course  on   matters   pertaining   to   religion"   is   more 
akin  to  the  sentiments  of  Theodore    Parker   than   to 
those  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.     Man's  original  up- 
rightness  is   here  denied;    non-responsibility  for   be- 
lief is  inculcated ;  the  salvation  of  the  whole  race  with- 
out any  exception  is  preached ;  and  to  speak  of  future 
punishment,  or  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  is  rep- 
resented as  making   a  sort   of  Moloch  of  God.     No 
wonder  then  that  Pollok's  divine  poem  is  condemned 
for  its  Calvinistic  theology,  and  that  Madame  George 
Sand's  works  are  represented  as  the  works  of  "  a  very 
religious  writer."     No  wonder   that  doctrinal  creeds 
are  made  very  lightly  of,  that   Scotch   Sabbaths   arc 
hated,  and  that  "conventicles"  are  shunned  for  their 
fanaticism.       These,   we   presume,   are   some    of    the 
"facts   and   philosophy  for   gentlemen."      No  doubt, 
they    are    meant    also    for    the    "ladies"    to    whom 


THE   PRESS.  515 

"hints  and  entertainment"  of  a  different  kind  are 
given ;  as  well  as  for  the  "  youth,"  for  whom  "  ques- 
tions and  diversions"  are  provided.  The  "Herald" 
is  not  unfrequently  spoken  of  as  the  most  respect- 
able penny  periodical  of  its  class — and  it  is  re- 
spectable compared  with  much  of  the  cheap  literature 
circulating  along  side  of  it.  But  here  lies  the  danger. 
Many  a  domestic  circle  that  would  justly  repel  the 
organ  of  an  atheistic  secularism,  or  the  grossly- 
immoral  trash  of  the  Reynolds  school,  because  their 
irreligion  is  too  palpable,  admit  the  "Herald"  for 
its  "  recreation  and  harmless  pastime,"  while  they 
receive  along  with  it  (knowingly  or  unknowingly) 
the  teachings  of  an  infidel  theology.  By  all  means 
let  us  have  cheap  "  domestic  magazines  of  useful 
information  and  amusement ;"  but  let  parents  and 
guardians  and  churches  see  to  it  that  their  "facts 
and  philosophy,"  as  well  as  their  "hints"  and 
"diversions,"  are,  at  least,  in  harmony  with  the 
genial  and  ennobling  teaching  of  the  Book  of  God, 
Suchi  we  regret  to  say,  is  not  the  case  with  the 
"  Family  Herald.  "^ 

'  Our  "  Family  Herald"  says,  "  The  passages  which  speak  of 
the  salvation  of  all  men  are  very  numerous.  There  is  one  which 
expressly  asserts  the  salvation  of  infidels,"  And  if  our  fireside  com- 
panions should  think  this  too  good  news  to  be  true,  they  are  referred 
to  Rom.  xi.,  32,  for  proof!!  "The  salvation  of  the  Scripture," 
?ays  this  domestic  teacher,  "  is  a  bodily  salvation  on  the  earth,  in 
which  men  will  eat  bread  and  drink  wine,  and  enjoy  the  pleasures 
of  qorporeal  existence.  Philosophy  has  changed  all  this,  and  we 
hear  almost  nothing  of  it.  What  can  the  clergy  be  about  ?"  And 
then  follows  an  admirable  text-proof  which  Paul  himself  certainly 
never  thought  of:     "Is  not   the   Head  of  the  Church   called  '  the 


516  THE    PRESS. 

Lastly,  comes  a  class  wliose  name  is  legion  —  a 
class  which  is  not  in  open  conflict  with  Christianity, 
like  the  first ;  nor  glaringly  vicious  and  immoral,  like 
the  second ;  nor  gives  forth  loose  religious  views  with 
its  entertainments,  like  the  third;  but  which  aims 
at  making  men  moral,  irrespective  of  the  great  essen- 
tial doctrines  of  the  gospel.  Works  of  this  class  pass 
by  Christianity  in  silent  contempt,  falsely  exalt  human 
nature,  and  endeavor  to  keep  it  independent  of 
divine  spiritual  aids.  This  class  of  cheap  literature 
sins  in  the  way  of  defect  rather  than  positive  state- 
ments. John  von  Miiller,  an  illustrious  German 
scholar  and  historian,  said  of  Herder's  Philosophy  of 
History,  "I  find  everything  there  but  Christ,  and 
what  is  the  history  of  the  world  without  Christ  ?"  In 
the  periodicals  referred  to,  we  find  almost  everything 
but  Christ;  and  what  is  all  the  moral  instruction 
in  the  world  without   Christ?      These    publications 

Saviour  of  the  body  ?'"  !  !  Here  is  another  lesson :  "  A  man  is 
responsible  for  his  false  or  bad  faith,  just  as  he  is  responsible  for 
his  bad  breath.  It  is  his  misfortune."  To  this  Messrs.  Emerson, 
Owen  and  Holyoake  will  have  no  objection.  "  Every  world,"  we 
are  told,  "  has  no  doubt  its  own  incarnation,  and  these  all  one  incar- 
nation ;  and  we,  being  many,  are  part  of  it,  etc."  This  is  something 
like  pantheism.  "Sincerity  wants  to  know  if  it  be  possible  to 
obtain  the  old  faith  in  God  that  wrought  miracles?"  And  the 
"  Herald "  insinuates  that  "  the  two  facts  of  faith  and  mesmerism 
combined  "  are  to  work  wonders.  Another  will  suffice  : — An  "  Un- 
learned Person"  inquires  about  the  heathen,  and  he  is  told, 
'•  Scripture  being  a  universal  revelation  by  a  Universal  Spirit — 
when  it  says  the  heathen  are  lost,  it  means  that  they  are  all  finally 
gathered  into  the  universal  Israel— lost  by  ceasing  to  be  heathen." 
Do  not  such  sentiments  justify  us,  then,  in  classing  among  evil 
instructors  the  "  Family  Herald  ?"' 


THE   PRESS.  517 

avowedly  aim  in  their  teaching,  not  only  to  increase 
men's  information,  but  to  make  them  better  and 
happier.  This  is  the  grand  design  for  which  Chris- 
tianity was  given  to  the  world.  It  claims  to  be  the 
only  system  of  truth  capable  of  thoroughly  regenerat- 
ing the  human  race.  This  claim  is  substantiated 
by  an  appeal  not  only  to  its  own  principles,  but  to 
Avhat  the  world  has  been  without  it,  and  to  what  it 
has  done  for  communities  and  individuals.  Surely 
then  the  moral  teaching  of  the  periodical,  as  well  as 
the  moral  teaching  of  the  living  preacher,  that  takes 
up  a  neutral  position  with  regard  to  Christianity, 
must  be  construed  into  virtual  hostility.  It  may  be 
said  of  the  one,  as  it  has  been  said  of  the  other,  that 
it  is  merely  aping  Epictetus.  We  do  not  want  the 
literature  on  which  we  are  commenting  sermonized, 
nor  to  be  taken  up  with  theological  controversies ;  but 
we  want  in  it  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
distinctively  Christian  elements  are  alone  efficacious 
in  radically  regenerating  the  world.  The  Great 
Teacher  has  said — and  the  remark  is  peculiarly  appli- 
cable to  moral  teaching — "  He  that  is  not  with  me  is 
against  me." 

In  the  above  classes  of  the  people's  literature  com- 
bined, were  a  mighty  agency  adverse  to  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity, even  though  the  Christianized  periodical  litera- 
ture were  greater  or  equal  in  amount  to  it.  But  how 
fearfully  effective  must  be  that  agency,  week  after 
week,  and  year  after  year,  when  the  circulation  of  the 
antidote  is  so  utterly  disproportionate  to  the  circula- 
tion of  the  poison. 


518  THE    PRESS. 

It  has  happened,  to  a  considerable  extent,  with  the 
press,  as  it  has  done  with  some  of  the  lands  of  the 
Reformation.  The  darkness  has  invaded  and  driven 
back  the  light.  Romish  superstition  has  multiplied 
her  altars  greatly  more  than  an  Evangelical  Protest- 
antism has  lengthened  her  cords  and  strengthened 
her  stakes.  The  press,  by  which  we  won  our  liberties, 
and  multiplied  our  Bibles,  though  powerfully  em- 
ployed on  the  side  of  good,  is  yet,  in  many  depart- 
ments, more  powerfully  employed  on  the  side  of  evil. 
The  church  is  only  becoming  awake  to  the  great  pre- 
ponderance on  the  wrong  side.  We  have  been  look- 
ing too  exclusively  to  the  multitudinous  streams  of 
healing  influences  that  have  been  flowing  forth  in 
many  directions.  We  have  dwelt  too  complacently  on 
our  large  Bible  issues,  on  our  Tract  Society  grants, 
on  the  number  and  extensive  circulation  of  our  relig- 
ious periodicals,  and  on  the  many  other  productions 
of  sterling  worth  that  are  ever  and  anon  issuing  from 
the  press.  These  numerous  and  powerful  instru- 
mentalities for  good  have  dazzled  our  eyes,  so  as  to 
have  concealed  very  much  from  our  view  the  strong 
and  numerous  currents  of  evil  that  are  flowing  visibly 
on  the  surface,  and  more  secretly,  though  not  the 
less  eflectually,  underneath.  But  to  be  awake  to  an 
evil,  is  half  overcoming  it;  and  patriotic  Christian 
men,  in  our  own  country  and  on  the  Continent,  are 
aiming  at  making  a  much  more  vigorous  use  of  the 
press. 

Some  of  our   old  influential   organs   have,  of  late 
years,  without  losing   anything   of  their  ability,   de- 


THE    PRESS,  519 

cidedly  improved  in  tone  and  spirit.  While  others, 
both  in  the  review  and  magazine  departments,  have 
begun  a  vigorous  course  in  opposition  to  infidel  errors, 
and  on  the  side  of  Gospel  truth.  Of  the  former,  we 
need  only  notice  the  Edinhurgli  Review^  whose  appear- 
ance marked  an  era  in  our  higher  periodical  litera- 
ture, and  which  has  exerted  a  strong  influence  on 
public  opinion.  At  the  time  when  the  "Quarterly" 
entered  the  field  as  its  rival,  the  Nortliern  Journal  is 
said  to  have  had  a  circulation  of  about  nine  thousand. 
It  is  well  known,  however,  that  Christian  missions 
were  assailed,  and  sceptical  opinions  found  favor  in 
many  of  the  papers  in  its  early  numbers,  and  when 
its  influence  was  so  great.  But  for  a  number  of  years, 
this  powerful  organ  has  done  much  effective  service 
on  the  right  side.  And  while  Macaulay  has  been 
enriching  its  pages  with  his  brilliant  and  healthy 
literary  criticisms,  such  men  as  Sir  James  Stephen 
and  Mr.  Henry  Rogers,  have  been  more  directly,  and 
with  great  power,  asserting  the  principles  of  the  Ref- 
ormation against  Romanism  and  Puseyism,  and  the 
claims  of  an  historical  Christianity  against  German 
and  English  rationalism.  The  reprints  of  these 
writers  are  among  the  most  valuable  contributions 
to  our  modern  literature. 

In  some  of  the  younger  quarterlies^  and  monthlies, 
which  have  been  called  forth  by  the  aggressions  of 
Romanism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Infidelity  on  the 
other,  we  find  men  of  might  and  of  a   right  spirit 

'  The  British  Quarterly,  and  the  North  British  Review  deserve 
epecial  notice. 


520  THE   PRESS. 

doing  valiantly  for  the  truth.  And  their  influence 
has  not  unfrequently  stricken  the  camp  of  the  enemy 
with  dismay. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  while 
Such  periodicals  are  battling  with,  and  affording  a 
strong  counteractive  to,  that  vague  philosophical 
theism  which,  in  numerous  ways,  appeals  to  the 
middling  and  higher  classes,  there  is  a  wide  lower 
range  of  mind  which  the  cheap  anti-Christian  litera- 
ture especially  addresses — a  range  of  mind  which  the 
massive  quarterly  or  monthly  does  not  reach ;  and  it 
is  here  chiefly  that  we  lack  a  suf6.ciently  apt  force  to 
counteract  the  enemy.  The  problem — how  to  supply 
the  masses  with  acceptable  and  yet  wholesome  and 
elevating  reading — has  never  yet  been  actually  and 
fully  wrought  out.  Philanthropic  men,  in  endeavor- 
ing to  meet  the  evil,  have  generally  erred  in  one  of 
two  ways.  They  have  either  gone  to  the  extreme 
of  bringing  purely  religious  publications,  in  the  form 
of  tracts  or  biographies,  to  bear  upon  the  popular 
mind  that  had  been  accustomed  to  the  dangerous  ro- 
mance ;  or  they  have  gone  to  the  extreme  of  merely  dif- 
fusing useful  information,  and  of  aiming  to  make  men 
moral  with  li,ttle  or  nothing  of  the  evangelical  element. 
Both  courses  have,  in  a  great  measure,  failed.  The 
former  has  been  like  casting  pearls  before  swine. 
The  latter  has  been  the  efibrt  of  men  to  draw  water 
out  of  a  well,  while  they  had  nothing  to  draw  with. 

The  Religious  Tract  Society,  which  all  good  men 
love,  as  if  conscious  that  something  more  was  needed  to 
meet  the  condition  of  the  masses  than  the  religious 


THE    PRESS.  521 

tract  or  narrative,  has  by  tlie  issue  of  the  monthly 
volume,  taken  a  step  in  the  right  direction — a  scheme 
which  has  Arnold's  language  for  its  motto,  "  I  never 
wanted  articles  on  religious  subjects  half  so  much  as 
articles  on  common  subjects,  written  with  a  decidedly 
Christian  tone."  It  has  too  much  been  forgotten  that 
the  people  will  have  entertaining  literature.  It  is  by 
entertaining  literature  of  a  depraved  kind  that  the 
evil  is  wrought,  and  it  must  be  by  entertaining  litera- 
ture of  a  healthy  Christian  tone  that  the  evil  must  be 
counteracted.  This  counteractive  influence  is  es- 
pecially needed  in  reference  to  the  weekly  penny 
publications.  It  is  from  this  stronghold  that  the 
enemy  brings  his  demoralizing  energies  to  bear  upon 
the  masses.  It  seems  that  within  the  last  two  years, 
not  less  than  two  hundred  new  penny  periodicals 
have  started  into  existence,  the  greater  part  of  which 
are  more  influential  for  evil  than  for  good.  These 
can  only  be  met  and  counteracted  by  penny  weekly 
periodicals  combining  instruction  and  entertainment, 
and  which  shall  have  the  effect  of  elevatino;  the  work- 
ing  classes  in  the  scale  of  moral  being.  Some 
weekly  penny-worths  (the  "Leisure  Hour,"  for  ex- 
ample), realize,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  the  kind 
of  influence  referred  to.  Let  such  approximate 
still  nearer  to  the  model  that  has  often  been  indi- 
cated, let  the  number  of  such  be  multiplied,  and 
let  good  men  employ  a  like  energy  in  disseminating 
their  cheap  good  things  as  bad  men  employ  in  dis- 
seminating their  cheap  bad  things. 

The  Messrs.   Chambers,   whose   Edinburgh  Journal 


522  THE    PRESS. 

has  an'  immense  circulation  throughout  the  king- 
dom, have  succeeded,  to  a  very  considerable  ex- 
tent, in  disseminating  sound  and  useful  information 
among  the  people.  Yet  they  complain  of  not  having 
influenced  the  masses  who  are  polluted  by  those 
Grub-street  productions,  which  are  the  scum  and 
disgrace  of  our  literature.  In  the  Minutes  of  Evi- 
dence taken  before  the  Select  Committee  on  News- 
paper Stamps,  it  is  stated  that  the  publications  which 
have  been  brought  out  at  a  cheap  rate,  originally 
under  the  plea  of  benefiting  the  working  classes, 
such  as  the  "Penny  Magazine,"  "Chambers'  Jour- 
nal," etc.,  have  missed  their  aim,  and  have  been 
generally  circulated  among  the  middle  classes.  In 
Chambers'  publications,  we  miss  the  evangelical 
element — that  decidedly  Christian  tone — which  Dr. 
Arnold  wished  to  give  to  the  Useful  Knowledge 
Society's  works,  and  especially  to  the  Penny  Maga- 
zine which  was  circulating  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  copies  weekly.  "  Prudence," 
says  a  reviewer^  of  our  Popular  Serial  Literature,  "  is 
Chambers'  favorite  theme  and  darling  virtue.  It  is 
the  aim  of  all  his  moral  instruction.  Right  feeling, 
correct  ethics  and  'enlightened  self-love,'  are  not 
only  the  highest  principles  to  which  he  appeals,  but 
seem  to  be  so  appealed  to  as  to  leave  no  room  for 
reference  to  a  higher  standard.  It  does  not,  as  all 
professed  instruction  ought  to  do,  point  upward." 
He  justly  adds,  "let  our  lightest  literature  preserve 
the     standard    of    Coleridge's    '  Commendable     Pru- 

'  North  British. 


THE    PRESS.  523 

dence,'  sanctioning  no  principle  which  the  word  of 
God  condemns — if  vice  be  portrayed,  let  our  im- 
pression of  it  be,  '  there  is  no  peace  to  the  wicked.' 
But  let  our  professedly  didactic  works  exhibit  the 
'  Wise  Prudence'  of  Coleridge — aim  at  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  principle,  if  not  distinctly  religious,  tending 
towards  religion  and  kept  in  harmony  with  it ;  and  we 
should  have  a  fairer  hope  of  reaching  and  moving  the 
lowest  of  our  people." 

The  church  has  powerful  resources,  in  the  form  of 
talent  and  wealth,  at  her  command,  which  need  only 
lay  hold  more  vigorously  on  the  Periodical  Press,  in 
order  to  drive  back  the  darkness  of  infidel  error,  and 
carry  forth  triumphantly  the  light  of  Gospel  truth. 
Would  that  the  men  of  sanctified  intellect,  the  princes 
in  Israel,  devoted  their  energies  to  a  larger  extent  in 
giving  us  a  Christianly  baptized  periodical  literature, 
and  that  Christian  men  of  wealth  were  to  expend 
much  larger  sums  in  extending  and  rendering  more 
eflicient  a  cheap  instructive  religious  press!  The 
newspaper,  the  twopenny  and  penny  journal,  without 
being  exclusively  devoted  to  religious  subjects,  or 
anything  like  sermonized,  must,  in  their  spirit  and 
aim,  be  Christianized.  Along  with  a  goodly  number 
of  works  in  sacred  literature  issuing  ever  and  anon 
from  the  press,  in  the  form  of  doctrinal  and  practical 
treatises,  and  religious  biographies ;  we  must  have  our 
little  and  large  books  of  science,  our  cheapest  as  well 
as  our  high-priced  periodicals,  our  journals  which 
treat  of  common  things  and  the  engrossing  topics  of 
the  day,  as  well  as  those  which  are  taken  up  with  the 


524  THE    PRESS. 

philosophical  essay,  leavened  throughout  with  the 
principles  of  Christian  truth.  One  of  the  most 
graphic  and  widely-circulated  histories  that  have  pro- 
ceeded from  the  modern  press,  as  we  have  already 
noticed,  is  written  on  the  principle  of  exhibiting  God 
in  history — a  principle  which  Robertson  had  almost 
forgotten,  and  to  which  Hume  and  Gibbon  were  op- 
posed.  And  when  the  principle  of  seeing  God  in 
everything — a  principle  as  remote  from  a  vague 
dreamy  pantheism  as  from  a  cold  lifeless  naturalism 
— is  recognized  in  every  department  of  our  literature, 
both  in  that  which  circulates  among  the  middle  and 
higher  classes  of  society,  and  in  that  which  runs 
throughout  the  lower  masses — the  press  will  be  con- 
secrated wholly  to  the  grand  end  for  which  God  gave 
it ;  be  omnipotent  on  the  side  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness; and,  like  the  bells  of  the  horses,  and  the  pots 
in  Jerusalem  and  in  Judah,  have  inscribed  upon  it, 
HOLINESS  UNTO  THE  LORD. 


CHAPTER   11. 


THE    CLUBS. 


The  present  pre-eminently  an  age  of  associations — Amount  of  such 
instrumentality  on  the  side  of  truth — This  often  blinds  us  to 
existing  agencies  for  evil — These  advance  under  different  shields — 
Charge  brought  against  many  literary  and  philosophical  associa- 
tions— Infidelity  of  the  socialist  clubs — Those  of  France  in  1789 
and  1848 — Still  strong  in  their  irreligious  influences  though  sup- 
pressed by  law — Hegelianism  of  the  German  clubs — Resorts  of 
the  travelling  joui-neymen  —  Switzerland  —  Salutary  changes  in 
Continental  institutions  defeated  by  such  irreligious  and  revolu- 
tionary associations — Infidel  associations  in  England — Existing 
secularist  societies — Clubs  of  foreign  workmen  in  London — Infi- 
delity most  prevalent  in  trades  that  admit  of  most  intercourse — 
Excellencies  of  existing  counteractive  and  aggressive  Christian 
agencies — Need  of  a  specific  agency  for  meeting  the  infidelity  of 
our  artisans — Wichern  and  the  German  Inner  Mission — Confer 
ences  on  true  Christianity  at  Paris. 

The  present  age  is  characterized  by  the  number  and 
variety  of  its  associations.  Never  was  the  maxim, 
that  union  is  strength,  so  generally  acted  upon. 
Projects  bearing  upon  man's  social  and  moral  condi- 
tion are  no  sooner  hinted  at,  than  societies  are  organ- 
ized for  developing  and  executing  them.  It  is  pre- 
eminently an  age  of  combination  for  the  diffusion  oi 
principles  whether  good  or  evil.     Isolation  of  mind 


526  THE    CLUBS. 

and  a  monopoly  of  ideas  are  by  no  means  prominent 
features  in  its  manifestation.     All  things  are  expan- 
sive, and  aim  at  universality.     Man  is  brought  nearer 
to  man,  and  there  is  much  more  fellowship  of  intel- 
lect  with   intellect,  than  in  the  ages   that   are   past. 
The   associations  that  exist  in  our  day  could  never 
have  taken  root  and  grown  up  under  the  old  civil  and 
ecclesiastical     despotisms.       Knowledge     is    not,    as 
aforetime,   the    inheritance    of    any   particular    class. 
It  has  descended  from  the  privileged  few,  and  become 
the  common  property  of  the  many.     The  repressive 
influences   of  the   middle  ages,  that  checked  the  in- 
tercourse of  mind  with  mind,  and  made  knowledge 
a  monopoly,  can  no  more  return  than  the  years  that 
are  passed  can  be  rolled  back  upon  the  world.     The 
current  not  only  flows,  in  a  great  measure  unimpeded 
from   man   to   man,  individually,  but   numerous    and 
powerful  combinations  are  formed  for  diverting  and 
diffusing    it     throughout    the     heart     of    humanity. 
These  combinations  are  mighty  for  evil  as  well  as  for 
good. 

It  would  be  ungrateful  to  overlook  the  amount  of 
this  kind  of  instrumentality  that  is  employed  on  the 
side  of  righteousness  and  truth.  There  are  our  noble 
foreign  missionary  societies,  the  glory  of  our  land, 
which,  having  sprung  up  within  the  last  sixty  years 
or  little  more,  have  made  the  desert,  in  many  parts, 
blossom  and  rejoice  as  the  rose ;  and  have  produced  a 
mighty  reflux  influence  for  good  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  state  of  a  vast  portion  of  our  home  popu- 
lation.    There  are  our  Christian  instruction  agencies, 


THE    CLUBS.  527 

our  city  and  town  missions,  wliicli  carry  the  lamp  of 
divine  truth  into  the  dark  places  of  our  cities  and 
towns,  and  point  the  ignorant  and  lost  to  Him  who  is 
the  light  and  life  of  men.  There  are  our  young  men's 
Christian  associations,  which  seek  to  lay  hold  of  the 
minds  of  ingenuous  youth,  and  protect  them  from  an 
infidel  literature  and  science,  by  presenting  them  with 
a  philosophy  and  literature  baptized  in  the  influences 
of  the  gospel.  And  there  are  numerous  other  so- 
cieties branched  out  over  the  land,  which  tend  to 
counteract  pernicious  error,  and  directly  or  indirectly 
produce  much  moral  good.  Such  associations  as 
these,  which  are  peculiar  to  the  age  in  which  we  live, 
are  valuable  beyond  all  estimate,  as  influences  on  the 
side  of  whatsoever  things  are  true,  and  pure,  lovely 
and  of  good  report.^ 


^  Mr.  Mayhew,  in  his  work  on  "  London  Labor  and  the  London 
Poor,"  has  done  good  service  by  fixing  our  attention  on  the  social 
and  religious  condition  of  the  masses.  There  is  room  for  adminis- 
tering a  rebuke  to  our  indifference  to  the  amount  of  irreligion  and 
wretchedness  that,  like  the  troubled  sea,  is  ever  rolling  round  the 
base  of  the  social  edifice.  But  why  do  it  with  a  frown  directed 
towards  missionary  zeal  in  other  lands  ?  The  heathenism  at  home 
has  by  no  means  been  overlooked  while  attending  to  the  heathenism 
abroad.  The  church  of  Christ  in  our  land  has  two  loud  calls  addressed 
to  her  at  present.  The  one  is  to  propagate  the  Gospel  in  foreign 
parts,  especially  among  Continental  nations  where  a  door  is  open.  The 
other  is  to  look  to  our  own  countrymen  who,  though  sui-rounded  by 
churches,  place  themselves  beyond  the  pale  of  their  influence.  We 
should  have  liked  Mr.  Mayhew's  remarks  better,  had  he  said  "  this 
thing  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  have  left  the  other  undone." 
The  passage  to  which  we  refer  is  the  following:  speaking  of  the 
metropolitan  costermongers,  he  says :  "  Indeed,  the  moral  and 
religious  state  of  these  men  is  a  foul  disgrace  to  us,  laughing  to 


528  THE    CLUBS. 

But  we  are  apt  to  be  affected  with  these  as  with 
the  influences  for  good  exerted  by  the  press.  We  are 
dazzled  by  them,  and  become  blinded,  as  it  were,  to 
the  numerous  and  powerful  combinations  on  the  side 
of  evil.  Our  insensibility  to  the  latter  may,  indeed, 
partly  be  accounted  for  from  the  fact  that  many  of 
these  evil  agencies  work  secretly  and  in  darkness, 
though  not  the  less  effectually.  They  hate  the  light, 
neither  come  to  the  light  lest  their  deeds  should  be 
reproved.  Whereas  the  other  associations,  being  the 
children  of  the  light  and  of  the  day,  come  to  the 
light  that  their  deeds  may  be  made  manifest  that 
they  are  wrought  in  God.  But,  whether  openly  or 
concealed,  it  is  unquestionable  that  societies,  which 
tend  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  advance  the  cause 
of  infidelity,  are  spread,  like  a  network,  over  the 
frame  of  human  society.  Their  design  is  not  always 
broadly  expressed  in  their  title,  and  their  irreligious 


scorn  our  zeal  for  the  '  propagation  of  the  gospel  in  foreign  parts,' 
and  making  our  many  societies  for  the  civilization  of  s-avagcs  on 
the  other  side  of  the  globe  appear  like  '  a  delusion,  a  mockery, 
and  a  snare,'  when  we  have  so  many  people  sunk  in  the  lowest 
depths  of  barbarism  round  about  our  very  homes.  It  is  well  to 
have  bishops  of  New  Zealand  when  we  have  Christianized  all  our 
oivn  heathen;  but  with  30,000  individuals  in  merely  one  of  our 
cities,  utterly  creedless,  mindless  and  principleless,  surely  it  would 
look  more  like  earnestness  on  our  part  if  we  created  bishops  of  the 
New-Cut,  and  sent  '  right  reverend  fathers '  to  watch  over  the  '  cure 
of  souls '  in  the  Broadway  and  the  Brill.  If  our  sense  of  duty  will 
not  rouse  us  to  do  this,  at  least  our  regard  for  our  own  interests 
should  teach  us,  that  it  is  not  safe  to  allow  this  vast  dung  heap  of 
ignorance  and  vice  to  seethe  and  fust,  breeding  a  social  pestilence  ic 
the  very  heart  of  our  land." — London  Labor  and  the  London  Foor, 
vol.  i.,  p.   101. 


THE    CLUBS.  529 

influences  are  not  unfrequently  exerted  in  combina- 
tion with  plans  and  objects  that  in  themselves  are 
perfectly  legitimate.  Sometimes  the  demon  of  un- 
godliness stalks  forth  under  the  patronage  of  an 
association,  the  inscription  on  whose  banner  is  purely 
political,  at  other  times  the  badge  is  literary  or  scien- 
tific, at  other  times  it  is  social  amelioration,  and  at 
other  times  it  is  even  divine  and  theological.  But, 
under  all  these  shields,  advances  and  works  the  self- 
same spirit  whose  mission  is  to  war  against,  pervert, 
and,  if  possible,  destroy  spiritual  Christianity. 

The  religion  of  Christ  can  bring  a  heavy  charge 
against  many  of  the  literary  and  philosophical  socie- 
ties existing  in  our  own  and  other  lands.  Paramount 
in  her  claims,  she  might  say  to  some  of  them  'ye 
have  kept  me  standing  and  knocking  at  the  door 
without,  and,  as  if  I  were  a  stranger  and  a  foreigner, 
have  refused  to  admit  me  within.  Ye  have  most  un- 
naturally divorced  science  and  literature  from  theol- 
ogy, and  what  God  hath  joined  together  ye  have 
put  asunder.  I  claim  the  homage  of  the  whole  realm 
of  nature.  Mine  is  the  world  of  matter,  mine  also  is 
the  world  of  mind.  But  ye  have  treated  me  as  an 
alien  and  have  thrust  me  into  a  corner,  and  by  insu- 
lating science  from  its  natural  relations  to  theology, 
have  occupied  inquiring  minds  with  the  former,  at 
the  cost  of  excluding  or  undervaluing  the  latter.  He 
that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me.'  Upon  others, 
the  gospel  could  fasten  the  charge  of  positive  hostility, 
and  say,  'ye  have  made  the  stars  in  their  courses 
fight  against  God,  ye  have  ransacked  the  bowels  of 


530  THE    CLUBS. 

the  earth  and  made  their  record  speak  against  Him 
whose  hand  inscribed  them,  and  ye  have  given  such 
views  of  man  and  of  the  universe  as  directly  conflict 
with  the  claims  of  religion  both  natural  and  revealed. 
In  endeavoring  to  advance  the  sciences,  ye  have 
waged  war  against  theology  which  stands  at  the  head 
of  them;  and,  in  prosecuting  the  interests  of  litera- 
ture, ye  have  scorned  the  excellency  of  that  knowledge 
for  which  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men 
counted  all  things  but  loss.'  Not  a  few  institutions 
of  influence  and  renown  could  thus  be  reckoned  as 
abetting,  directly  or  indirectly  the  cause  of  infidelity. 

But  what  we  have  chiefly  in  view  in  this  chapter, 
are  the  political  and  socialist  clubs.  Societies  for 
the  peaceful  discussion  of  matters  of  social  polity, 
and  the  promotion  of  social  ameliorations,  are  not 
only  legitimate,  but  have  often  done  good  service 
to  the  community.  We  exclude,  therefore,  all  such 
as  sustain  this  character  from  our  enumeration  of 
evil  agencies ;  and  restrict  our  remarks  to  those 
which  aim,  in  connection  with  social  changes,  at 
an  innovation  into  the  substance  of  Christianity,  or 
the  subversion  of  it  as  the  divinely-revealed  system 
of  truth.  Their  name  is  legion.  The  socialist  clubs 
of  the  Continent,  for  the  most  part,  partake  of  this 
character. 

France  is  the  hot-bed  of  socialism,  whence  it  is 
propagated  throughout  Switzerland  and  Germany. 
And  it  is  in  France  that  the  clubs  to  which  we  are 
adverting,  exist,  or  have  existed  until  very  recently, 
in    great   numbers   and  eflQciency.      Socialism,  aa  we 


THE    CLUBS.  531 

have  seen,  does  not  stand  neutral  in  regard  to 
religion.  As  hitherto  organized,  it  has  been  steeped 
in  irreligion.  Christianity  comes  within  the  sweep 
of  its  levelling  agency,  and  it  aims  at  supplanting 
the  established  forms  of  worship.  Its  religion,  at  the 
very  best,  is  one  of  social  equality  or  man-worship. 
Depravity,  in  its  creed,  lies  in  the  inequalities  and 
oppressiveness  of  the  social  frame-work;  private 
property  is  the  demon  to  be  repressed  or  cast  out; 
and  equality,  liberty  and  fraternity,  in  a  mere  poli- 
tical sense,  constitute  the  everlasting  Gospel  of 
humanity.  The  system  puts  on  a  political  face, 
but  it  is  decidedly  infidel  at  heart. 

Associations  for  the  propagation  of  these  opinions 
rose  up  in  immense  numbers  and  great  vigor,  in 
France,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  late  revolution, 
These  opinions  had  long  been  floating  throughout 
the  mass  of  society,  had  formed  the  subjects  of  dis- 
cussion in  workshops  and  social  meetings,  and  had 
been  wafted  abroad  by  tracts  and  journals.  But  the 
regularly-organized  clubs  combined  and  strengthened 
their  scattered  adherents,  and,  along  with  the  press 
formed  the  most  effective  socialist  propaganda.  No- 
thing gives  a  more  powerful  impulse  to  any  system  than 
the  approximation  of  its  abbettors,  one  toward  another, 
through  such  agencies  as  associations.  Discussions 
in  clubs,  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  surface  on 
which  they  are  brought  to  bear,  are  in  general  more 
influential  than  discussions  in  public  journals,  es- 
pecially in  matters  that  tend  to  excite  and  interest 
the   passions   of    men.     Such   associations   not   unfre- 


532  THE    CLUBS. 

quently  command  some  of  the  most  elequeiit  and 
clever  men  that  are  to  be  found  within  and  without 
the  public  assemblies  of  the  nation.  In  the  great 
French  Revolution  of  1789,  the  clubs  were  resorted 
to  by  some  of  the  ablest  and  most  popular  of  the 
public  men  of  France.  Robespierre  and  the  other 
revolutionary  chiefs  swayed  them  by  their  influence, 
and  through  them  swayed  the  National  Assembly. 
The  doors  of  these  clubs  were  flung  open  to  the 
people,  and  there,  as  well  as  in  other  ways,  the 
masses  heard  these  opinions  enforced,  and  received 
that  impulse,  which  urged  them  to  sweep  away  the 
throne  and  the  altar,  and  deluge  the  land  with 
infidelity  and  blood. 

The  socialist  leaders,  at  the  revolution  of  February, 
1848,  exerted  their  influence  on  the  French  commu- 
nity chiefly  through  the  medium  of  such  associations. 
That  revolution  was  valuable  in  their  eyes,  only  as  it 
afforded  them  an  opportunity  of  bringing  about  certain 
great  social  changes.  The  many  unjust  and  oppressive 
arrangements  of  society  yielded  them  a  ground  on 
which  to  stand  and  ply  their  logic.  But  not  satisfied 
with  correcting  abuses,  they  aimed  at  remodelling 
the  whole  frame-work,  and  would  virtually  have  sub- 
stituted socialism  as  a  system  for  the  Gospel,  or  have 
baptised  it  with  the  name  of  Christianity.  The  dis 
cussions  of  the  socialist  clubs  have  often  assumed  a 
complexion  of  this  kind.  There  it  has  been  main- 
tained that  socialism  is  the  true  religion  of  Christ; 
that  He  was  the  Prince  of  the  communists ;  that  a 
iocial  amelioration  was  the  design  of  setting  up  the 


THE   CLUBS.  533 

kingdom  of  God  among  men;  and  that  it  therefore 
should  supplant  all  other  forms  of  civil  and  religious 
polity.  These  clubs  were  the  chief  places  of  resort 
during  the  time  in  which  France,  like  a  troubled  sea, 
could  not  rest.  The  din  of  intestine  strife  was  heard 
in  the  midst  of  them.  But,  notwithstanding  their 
internal  differences,  they  all  agreed  in  proclaiming 
a  social  revolution  to  be  the  hope  of  the  world,  and 
the  grand  means  of  indefinitely  ameliorating  the  con- 
dition of  man.  In  the  clubs,  indeed,  not  to  speak  of  the 
broad  atheism  often  manifested,  there  was  preached, 
in  connection  with  social  reform,  another  gospel  as 
different  from  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  darkness  is 
from  light.  And  countless  multitudes  received  the 
proclamation  with  an  eagerness  seldom  manifested, 
at  least  on  so  large  a  scale,  by  those  who  listen  to 
the  real  glad  tidings  of  great  joy. 

Socialism,  happily  has  failed  of  seizing  the  reins  of 
government,  and  the  world  has  been  spared  again 
witnessing  the  reign  of  proscription  and  infidelity. 
But,  though  banished  from  the  Luxembourg,  and 
beaten  down  at  the  tribune,  and  having  its  clubs 
placed  under  the  ban,  it  has  by  no  means  halted  or 
lost  its  vigor.  The  clubs,  in  spite  of  all  opposition, 
are  said  to  exist  secretly  in  great  numbers.  Discus- 
sions, destructive  of  all  social  order  and  sound  relig- 
ion, are  carried  on.  Less  conspicuous  than  it  once 
was  in  the  eye  of  the  public,  socialism,  with  indomi- 
table perseverance,  is  prosecuting  its  work  of  pro- 
selytizing beneath  the  surface.  It  aims  at  leavening 
the  entire  mass  of  society  with  its  principles.     And, 


534  THE    CLUBS. 

though,  politically  disunited  and  weak,  it  is  still  strong 
in  its  irreligious  influences,  because  the  tendency  of 
its  different  contending  sects  is  hostile  to  that  truth 
which  requires  repentance  towards  God  and  faith  toward 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Vast  multitudes  of  the  work- 
ing classes  on  the  Continent,  who  have  a  growing 
faith  in  their  social  elevation,  are  prepared,  by  the 
deep  grudge  which  they  bear  to  the  existing  social 
arrangements,  to  applaud  the  communist  doctrines 
however  irreligious,  as  they  fall  from  the  lips  of  the 
club  orator.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to  conceive  how 
masses  of  men,  politically  and  socially  disaffected, 
may,  by  harangues,  have  their  passions  roused  against 
the  existing  religious,  as  well  as  civil  institutions  of 
the  country,  and  thereby  against  religion  itself  Each 
of  these  clubs  is  a  vortex  of  irreligion  into  which 
artisan  after  artisan  is  drawn  by  the  hope  which  is 
held  out  of  an  indefinite  amelioration  in  theu'  con- 
dition. Let  such  associations  as  these  be  sup- 
pressed by  the  law,  it  is  just  the  scattering  of  the 
seeds  of  anarchy  and  ungodliness  abroad  to  form 
centres  of  influence  elsewhere.  These  clubs,  in  their 
scattered  members,  or  in  their  secret  meetings,  are, 
we  are  persuaded,  no  less  influential  on  the  side  of 
irreligion  than  when  they  flourished  openly  without 
opposition.  The  spirits  of  evil,  when  not  suffered  to 
remain  in  open  council,  meet  in  conclave  and  act  the 
more  resolutely,  under  the  impulse  already  given,  in 
propagating  abroad  their  infidel  opinions. 

It  is  not  to  France,  however,  that  such  associations 
have  been  confined.     They  overspread,  in  a  greater  or 


THE    CLUBS.  535 

less  degree,  the  most  of  Europe.  The  cities  of  Ger- 
many and  Switzerland  were  rife  with  them,  and  no- 
where was  their  atheistical  character  more  broad  and 
decided.  The  communism  of  these  countries  is  to  be 
traced  to  France.  Myriads  of  German  workmen  are 
ever  passing  to  and  from  Paris,  where  they  become 
acquainted,  and  fall  in,  with  all  the  social  movements 
of  the  French  working  classes.  It  was  calculated,  a 
few  years  ago,  that  there  were  from  forty  thousand  to 
sixty  thousand  Germans  in  Paris,  employed,  or  seek- 
ing* employment,  as  mechanics.  These  generally, 
become  members  of  clubs,  where  a  gross  infidelity 
and  a  lawless  democracy  go  hand  in  hand ;  and  then, 
returning  in  process  of  time  to  their  own  country, 
they  organize  associations  of  a  similar  character  or 
swell  those  that  are  already  existing.  But  if  the 
German  moving  population  imbibe  and  carry  home 
the  infidel  French  socialism,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
that  they  have  an  infidelity  of  their  own  which  they 
impart  to  others.  The  infidel  principles  of  the 
Hegelian  school  are  not  restricted  to  university  stu- 
dents. They  are  familiar  to  the  German  workmen, 
and  they  reduce  them  to  practice.  Pantheism,  or  the 
boldest  atheism,  has  been  avowed  and  advocated  in 
their  clubs.  The  belief  in  a  living  personal  God  has 
been  repudiated  as  a  worn-out  fiction,  and  the  notion 
of  a  heaven  beyond  the  grave  has  been  denounced  as 
the  greatest  hinderance  in  realizing  a  paradise  on 
earth.  "Man  by  himself,"  said  one  of  the  boldest 
and  most  strenuous  apostles  of  these  infidel  clubs, 
"  Man  is  the  religion  of  the  coming  age." 


536  THE    CLUBS. 

It  has  been  affirmed  that  the  test  of  admission  to 
the  higher  honors  of  these  associations,  was  an  un- 
scrupulous denial  of  the  existence  of  God.  He, 
whose  conscience  prevented  him  going  thus  far,  was 
not,  however,  wholly  excluded,  but  placed  under  the 
most  effective  teaching  in  order  to  induce  him  to  re- 
nounce the  old  dogma,  and  make  him  a  proselyte  of 
the  true  stamp.  These  clubs  had  their  divisions  and 
sub-divisions  for  carrying  on  more  effectually  the 
work  of  proselytism,  and,  with  an  energy  and  zeal 
worthy  of  a  better  cause,  became  all  things  to  all  men 
in  order  that  they  might  gain  multitudes.  There  are 
two  social  arrangements  which,  though  originally  de- 
signed for  good,  greatly  strengthen  the  infidelity  of 
the  German  workmen  who  compose  these  clubs.  The 
one  is  the  corporation  law  which  renders  it  necessary 
for  the  journeyman  artisan  to  travel  before  he  can 
obtain  a  master's  diploma.  The  design  of  this  is  that 
every  young  man,  on  finishing  his  apprenticeship, 
might,  by  two  or  more  years  travelling,  get  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  his  business.  The  other  is  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Herherge^  or  tradesman's  house  of  call,  of 
which  one  exists  for  every  trade  in  those  cities  where 
the  corporation  law  is  in  force.  The  former  arrange- 
ment brings  the  moving  artisans  in  contact  with  the 
infidelity  that  is  afloat.  The  latter  gives  the  power  of 
association  to  all  the  irreligious  opinions  that  they  have 
gathered  in  their  wanderings.  In  these  resorts  of  the 
travelling  journeyman,  says  the  noble-minded  Wichern. 
"the  A  B  C  of  democracy  is  taught,  and  many  ad- 
vance in  the  political  catechism,  systematically  gone 


THE    CLUBS.  53 r 

through,  until  the  top-stone  is  laid  in  red  republican- 
ism and  avowed  atheism."^ 

Switzerland,  also,  recently  abounded  in  infidel 
communist  clubs.  It  has  been  asserted  that  not 
fewer  than  twenty  thousand  German  mechanics  in 
that  land,  were  exposed  to  their  seductions,  the 
greater  portion  of  whom  have  come  under  their 
demoralizing  influence.  Here  ultra-radicalism  and 
ultra-atheism  are  closely  connected.  The  notorious 
Marr,  who  learned  his  atheism  in  these  synagogues 
of  Satan,  boasted  of  having  been  instrumental  in 
inducing  many  hundreds  of  his  countrymen  to  re- 
nounce their  faith  in  God,  and  of  sending  them  back 
to  their  native  land  avowed  enemies  to  all  religion  but 
man-worship.^ 

When  such  numerous  and  powerful  associations 
for  evil  as  these  are  known  to  have  existed  over  conti- 
nental Europe — associations  where  the  most  revolu- 
tionary  politics,    the    most   unblushing    atheism,  and 


'  A  correspondent  in  "  Evangelical  Christendom"  for  Feb.,  1850, 
states,  "  there  are  secret  clubs  of  communists  everywhere ;  for  in- 
stance, eight  in  Berlin,  four  in  Cologne,  two  in  Dusseldorf,  three  in 
Mainz,  &c.,  &e.  These  clubs  have  so-called  'apostles,'  of  whom 
there  are  many  hundreds,  who  declare  (I  extract  it  from  one  of  their 
pamphlets),  '  We  stand  on  the  foundation  of  the  Apostles,  but  we 
are  free  from  the  blindness  of  the  first  scholars  of  the  great  masters. 
We  trouble  not  ourselves  about  the  miracles  of  the  Jewish  philoso- 
pher, and  inquire  not  after  his  passport  to  heaven.  The  Son  of  God 
could  not  save  the  world ;  his  doctrine  became  a  curse  for  eighteen 
centuries,'  &c."  Men  blaspheme  against  "  Jesus  Christ  himself,  the 
chief  corner-stone,"  and  yet  maintain  that  they  stand  on  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Apostles ! 

"  Evangelical  Christendom,  vol.  iii.,  p.  18. 


538  THE    CLUBS. 

the  most  blasphemous  songs,  have  been  heard  and 
enthusiastically  greeted  —  it  is  not  wonderful  that, 
amid  the  social  heavings  of  foreign  lands,  there 
should  have  been  thrown  up  such  an  amount  of 
irreligion  which,  like  the  smoke  out  of  the  bottom- 
less pit,  darkened  the  sun  and  air,  and  defeated 
those  attempts  at  a  salutary  change  in  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  institutions,  the  success  of  which  was  so 
desirable. 

England,  too,  though  by  no  means  to  the  same 
fearful  extent,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  higher 
amount  of  good  counteractive  influences,  has  her 
infidel  clubs  and  associations.  It  is  but  the  truth, 
when  we  say  that  our  working  classes,  as  a  whole, 
are  much  sounder  at  heart,  and  that  there  exists 
among  them  a  greater  portion  of  vital  godliness,  than 
is  to  be  found  among  the  workmen  of  France  and 
Germany.  But  let  not  any  recent  manifestations 
of  social  stability  and  sound  piety  on  the  part  of  our 
working  classes,  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  infidel  prin- 
ciples and  agencies  are  at  work  among  our  artisans, 
endeavoring  to  enlist  their  political  and  social  dis- 
affection on  the  side  of  evil.  There  is  an  infidelity 
allied  with  intelligence,  or  half-intelligence,  as  well 
as  an  infidelity  allied  with  ignorance.  The  former 
prevails  to  a  large  extent  among  the  artisans  in  our 
cities  and  towns,  and  strengthens  and  propagates 
itself  by  associations.  There  is,  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten, a  deep  disaffection  and  grudge  at  the  heart 
of  the  working  classes,  on  account  of  their  political 
disabilities    and    social    wrongs,    whether     these     be 


THE    CLUBS.  539 

counted  real  or  iraaginary,  that  gives  the  apostles  of 
an  infidel  socialism  a  ground  on  which  to  ply  their 
arts  of  seduction.  In  many  of  the  workmen's  clubs 
which  are  to  be  found  throughout  the  empire,  the 
political  and  moral  amelioration  of  man  is  held  out 
IS  the  result  of  certain  socialist  theories.  Chris- 
tianity is  either  supplanted  in  their  declamations,  or 
both  it  and  its  institutions  are  represented,  openly 
.)r  by  insinuation,  as  among  the  instruments  of  oppress- 
ion, and  the  hinderances  to  the  realization  of  their 
goMen  age.  These  are  the  sermons  to  which  multi- 
tudes eagerly  listen  on  work-day  evenings,  and  on  the 
day  of  rest.  It  is  either  the  doctrine  of  material 
circumstances,  or  a  system  of  man-worship,  that  is 
preached.  The  club  orators  point  to  the  existing 
arrangements  of  society  as  the  chief  evils,  and  they 
ignore  all  moti-vo  power  but  the  human  will  in  the 
work  of  regeneration.  Multitudes  of  our  young  and 
half-intelligent  artisans,  in  resorting  to  such  teaching, 
are  promised  liberty  by  tnGse  who  themselves  are  the 
servants  of  corruption. 

That  there  exists,  at  the  present  moment,  a  system 
of  agency,  somewhat  loosely  and  irregularly  organized, 
for  disseminating  infidel  principles,  not  only  in  the 
metropolis  but  throughout  the  empire,  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  Societies  of  this  kind,  differing  in  the 
number  of  their  adherents  and  in  the  vigor  of  their 
operations,  are  to  be  found  scattered  here  and  there 
^rom  the  Thames  to  the  Clyde.  London  is  the  h«3,rt 
of  the  movement;  and  that  heart  is  now  full  of 
energy.     The  numbers  of  well-attended  weekly  lee- 


540  THE    CLUBS. 

tures  and  discussions  that  are  held  in  the  city  and 
suburbs,  the  exertions  made  to  widen  the  influence 
of  one  or  more  atheistical  organs,  not  to  mention 
some  efforts  of  a  more  fitful  and  irregular  character, 
betoken  a  resolute  attempt  to  pervert  the  peo- 
ple. The  blood  is  conveyed  through  the  heart  into 
the  body  by  the  arteries,  and  these  we  find  in  such 
populous  places  as  Bradford,  Manchester,  Leeds, 
Dudley,  Nottingham,  Bolton,  Blackburn,  Newcastle, 
Glasgow,  &c.  These  societies,  like  others  of  an 
opposite  description  at  which  they  are  continually 
railing,  have  their  differences — their  essential  and 
non-essential  points.  But  one  word  has  recently 
been  adopted  so  as  to  cover  all  their  principles — and 
none  could  be  more  appropriate  if  it  be  rightly  under- 
stood, only  there  is  a  convenient  ambiguity  about  it — 
the  word  secularism.  Two  of  the  non-essential  points 
are  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  distinct  from 
nature,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  These,  it 
seems,  are  to  be  left  open  questions :  some  secularists 
boldly  avowing  their  disbelief  in  them,  and  others 
not  having  attained  to  such  a  pitch  of  heroism.  The 
one  essential  article  of  the  creed — the  shibboleth  of 
the  party,  the  common  linking  principle  —  is  that 
morality  is  independent  of  religion.  The  present 
scene  is  to  be  regarded  as  if  it  were  the  whole  of 
man.  This  life,  as  it  is  alleged,  being  the  first  in 
certainty,  must  be  placed  first  in  importance.  Though 
the  principles  are  out  and  out  atheistical,  the  term 
atheist  is  now  abandoned  for  its  bad  sound.  Though 
all  that  is  worthy  of  the  name  of  tru+h  be  rejected, 


THE    CLUBS.  541 

the  designation  of  infidel  is  to  be  disused,  because 
of  its  ill-fame.  And  under  this  convenient  title  of 
secularism,  nature  is  to  be  preached  as  the  only  sub- 
ject of  knowledge,  and  man  is  to  be  taught  to  limit 
his  thoughts  and  anxieties  to  the  present  world. 
Our  secularists  must  tear  out  men's  consciences  first, 
turn  the  human  breast  into  a  sepulchre  of  dead  hopes, 
seal  it  up,  and  set  a  watch,  before  they  can  expect 
any  great  portion  of  the  world  to  be  converted  to 
their  principles ;  for  if  there  is  one  thing  more  clearly 
established  than  another  by  the  voice  of  universal 
history,  it  is  that  man  will  have  a  religion,  and  that, 
in  the  sense  of  completely  ignoring  a  Supreme  Being 
distinct  from  nature  and  shutting  out  futurity  from 
his  view,  man  is  not  a  secularist.  Let  it  be  under- 
stood then  that  no-religion  is  the  fundamental  dogma 
of  these  societies;  that  morality  without  religion,  or 
the  never-failing  streams  after  the  fountain  has  been 
sealed,  is  the  only  prospect  that  they  seek  to  realize ; 
and  we  care  not  whether  they  be  called  agencies  of 
secularism  or  sensualism,  though  we  think  the  lattei 
designation  the  more  appropriate  of  the  two. 

The  German  and  other  foreign  workmen,  have 
their  clubs  in  our  own  land,  which  are  for  the  most 
part  of  an  irreligious  character.  This  is  especially 
the  case  in  London.  Chevalier  Bunsen  stated,  a  few 
years  ago,  at  the  foundation  of  the  Foreigners'  Evan- 
gelical Society,  that  there  were  from  thirty-five  thou- 
sand to  forty-five  thousand  Germans,  or  about  half 
the  whole  number  of  foreigners  in  this  country. 
Most    of    these   are   workmen.       The   clever   design- 


542  THE    CLUBS. 

ing  men,  connected  with  the  clubs,  eagerly  lay  hold 
of  them,  and  persuade  them  to  attend  their  meetings, 
where  they  imbibe  the  most  infidel  principles. 

Thus  the  power  of  association  by  which  great 
things  among  us  are  done  on  the  side  of  goodness 
and  truth,  is  mightily  employed  on  behalf  of  the  worst 
forms  of  evil.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  infidelity 
is  generally  most  prevalent  in  those  trades  which 
admit  of  most  intercourse  among  the  workmen.  One 
clever  infidel  in  a  workshop  will  sometimes  exert 
all  the  influences  of  the  club  orator,  especially  if  he 
comes  in  contact  with  men  who  are  somewhat  preju- 
diced against,  or  but  nominally  attached  to  Chris- 
tianity. We  have  heard  of  a  German  engineer — a 
man  of  remarkable  mental  power  and  energy — who, 
some  years  ago,  got  into  a  large  factory  in  the  south 
of  London,  and  he  gradually  diffused  infidel  principles 
among  the  workmen.  It  was  generally  understood 
that,  in  this  propagandism,  he  acted  as  the  deputy  of 
an  infidel  association.  The  Camlachie  weaver,  whom 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  instrumental  in  converting, 
was  apprenticed,  when  a  boy,  to  an  infidel,  of  whom 
it  is  told  that  he  succeeded  in  seducing  the  twenty 
men  under  him  into  unbelief^  How  melancholy  to 
think  that  men  so  sedulously  do  the  work  of  him 
who  is  the  great  adversary  of  God  and  man !  And 
how  often  may  the  children  of  light  learn  a  lesson 
of  united  effort  and  persevering  zeal,  in  prosecuting 
their  noble  object,  from  the  way  in  which  the  chil- 
dren    of    this   world    seek    their     destructive    ends. 

'  Dr.  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol   ii.,  p.  481. 


THE   CLUBS.  543 

"When    bad   men  combine,"  said    a   great    English 
statesman,  "  good  men  should  associate." 

Combinations  for  evil  have  not,  however,  as  already 
noticed,  the  field  to  themselves.  There  exists,  and 
happily  is  multiplying,  a  strong  counteractive  and  ag- 
gressive Christian  agency,  which,  if  rightly  adapted  so 
as  to  meet  the  ever-shifting  forms  of  error,  is  calcu- 
lated to  do  good  service  in  the  cause  of  truth.  We 
do  not  refer  so  much  to  the  Christian  churches  that 
stud  the  land,  as  to  the  beneficent  instrumentalities 
that  owe  their  existence  and  support  to  these  churches. 
There  is,  we  cannot  help  thinking,  a  louder  complaint 
of  inefficiency  and  want  of  adaptation  uttered  by  some 
men  against  our  regularly-constituted  associations  for 
Christian  worship,  than  the  nature  of  the  case  really 
warrants.  Because  our  creeds  have  no  attractions 
for  vast  masses  of  men  who  are  seeking  a  religion  of 
political  liberty  or  social  elevation,  they  are  spoken  of 
as  a  dead  letter,  as  worn  out  and  effete.  Because 
our  pulpit  ministrations  fail  to  win  the  men  who  hang 
unweariedly  on  the  lips  of  club  orators,  therefore 
it  is  alleged  they  are  not  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  age  in  which  we  live.  We  have  admitted,  in 
another  part  of  this  essay,  that  the  pulpit,  in  some 
quarters,  might  relax  a  little  of  its  rigidity  without 
surrendering  any  of  its  orthodoxy,  that  its  teaching 
might  take  a  wider  range  while  all  its  instructions 
nevertheless  are  given  from  under  the  shadow  of.  the 
cross,  and  that  a  nearer  approach  to  the  colloquial  in 
style  might  be  made  without  losing  anything  of  ita 
grave  dignity.     But  far  distant  be  the  day,  when  i1 


544  THE    CLUBS. 

shall  descend  to  the  political  arena,  and  take  up  so- 
cialist questions,  the  discussions  of  which  have  greater 
attractions  for  multitudes  than  the  publishing  of  the 
simple  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  The  fact  is,  that  a 
great  portion  of  the  blame  which  is  laid  at  the  door 
of  churches,  must  be  thrown  over  upon  the  stubborn 
fact  of  human  depravity.  There  are  vast  numbers  of 
the  pulpits  of  our  evangelical  churches  occupied  by 
men  of  superior  abilities,  of  great  unction  and  of  living 
power,  and  many  of  these  churches,  it  is  not  to  be 
forgotten,  are  composed,  in  a  considerable  extent,  of 
working  men. 

But  the  multitudes  who  throng  the  socialist  clubs, 
or  frequent  the  secularist  lecture  room,  whether  in 
our  own  or  in  foreign  lands,  are  beyond  the  pale  of  the 
pulpit's  influence,  because  deeply  prejudiced  against 
its  teaching,  and,  if  reached  at  all,  must  be  reached 
by  other  agencies.  Such  agencies  exist,  and  what  is 
wanting  is  that  they  be  multiplied  or  supplemented, 
more  vigorously  used,  have  men  of  mental  pov^er  as 
well  as  burning  zeal  in  their  employ,  and  work  a  little 
more  on  the  principle  of  becoming  all  things  to  all 
men.  Our  home  missionary  associations,  with  the 
exception  perhaps  of  the  London  City  Mission,  restrict 
their  operations  too  exclusively  to  the  ignorant  masses 
who  are  a  degree  below  the  working  classes  to  whom 
we  refer,  but  from  whom  their  infidelity  descends  and 
is  received  by  the  lower  grade.  While  the  many  ex- 
cellent young  men's  Christian  associations  which  are 
rising  up  with  great  vigor,  are  fitted  rather  to  shield 
from  danger   those  who   have  a   nominal   connection 


THE    CLUBS.  545 

with  the  church,  but  who  are  exposed  to  strong  in- 
fidel allurements,  than  to  reach  the  thousands  who 
have  fallen  into  the  net  of  the  spoiler.  Something- 
is  wanting  to  carry  the  siege  into  the  enemy's  strong- 
holds, to  attack  the  various  forms  of  infidelity  that 
have  obtained  a  hold  of  the  minds  of  our  artisans,  to 
expose  the  sophistries  and  delusions  under  which 
they  are  held,  and  thus  prepare  them  for  the  admis- 
sion of  that  truth  by  which  alone  men  are  made  free. 
Piety  however  deep,  and  zeal  however  indomitable, 
will  not  sufi&ce  for  this  object;  they  must  be  com- 
bined with  intellectual  acuteness  and  grasp;  and 
a  host  of  persons,  in  whom  all  these  qualifications 
meet,  can  be  supplied  by  the  Christian  church.  In 
our  city  missions,  and  Christian  instruction  asso- 
ciations, we  have  an  admirable  instrumentality  for 
carrying  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  who  will  not 
come  to  the  Gospel.  But  we  want  a  more  effi- 
cient agency,  either  under  the  direction  of  such 
associations,  or  wielded  by  a  new  combination,  for 
the  platform  occupied  by  our  intelligent  or  half-in- 
telligent artisans  who  are  indifferent  or  hostile  to 
evangelical  truth. 

The  Christian  community  in  Germany,  who  are 
far  behind  England  in  their  home-mission  agencies, 
and  who  are  beginning  to  attribute  our  stability, 
amid  the  late  revolutions,  to  the  salt  that  is  among 
us,  are  putting  forth  their  strength  not  only  to  carr\ 
the  Gospel  into  the  homes  of  the  poor,  but  to  meet  the 
spiritual  needs  of  their  shifting  artisan  population. 
The  conference  lately  held  at  Wittemberg,  the  city  of 


546  THE    CLUBS. 

Luther,  has  pledged  itself  to  the  promotiou  of  these 
objects.  Wichern,  of  Hamburg,  a  man  of  a  noble 
spirit,  has  the  merit  of  heading  this  movement  for 
the  wants  of  the  German  Fatherland.  He  says,  "  The 
blight  of  infidelity  has  fallen  on  our  land,  chiefly 
through  the  instrumentality  of  an  artisan  propaganda ; 
and  it  must  be  met  by  the  counteracting  influence. of 
a  Christian  artisan  propaganda. — And  thus  the  free- 
dom of  speech,  and  press,  and  association,  which  is 
now  the  most  powerful  ally  of  Satan,  will  become  the 
best  and  most  effective  aid  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence." 

The  conferences  on  true  Christianity,  opened  at 
Paris,  a  few  years  ago,  in  which  the  working  classes 
were  chiefly  addressed,  arose  out  of  the  felt-want  of 
some  specific  agency  to  counteract  the  infidel  teach- 
ing of  the  socialist  clubs.  These  conferences  were 
attended  with  success,  so  long  as  the  government, 
jealous  of  everything  that  could  be  construed  into  a 
club,  permitted  them.  The  artisans  of  the  faubourgs 
are  said  to  have  heard  with  interest  the  true  Gospel 
of  Christ.  And  even  educated  auditors  of  socialists 
listened  to  the  bearings  of  Christianity  on  those  so- 
cial questions  which  have  been  mixed  up  with  a  med- 
ley of  the  worst  forms  of  infidelity."^ 

The  desirableness  of  some  such  agency  among  our- 
selves has  been  hinted  at.  It  is  required  by  the  num- 
ber of  reading  artisans  in  our  cities  and  towns  who 
have  been  suffered  to  grow  up  strongly  prejudiced 
against    the  gospel,   persons  on   whom    our  churches 

'  Evangelical  Christendom.     Vol.  iii.,  pp.  41,  139,  329. 


THE   CLUBS.  547 

have  no  hold,  but  to  whom  an  infidel  socialist  club  or 
association  presents  an  allurement.  And,  not  to 
mention  other  inducements,  it  is  required  by  the 
Christian  principle  of  accommodation,  becoming  all 
things  to  all  men  in  order  that  we  may  win  some. 
It  is  only,  we  are  persuaded,  by  some  such  specific 
agency  that  the  efforts  now  making,  in  many  of  our 
large  towns,  by  the  infidel  secularist  propaganda,  can 
be  met  and  successfully  counteracted.  These  efforts 
are  chiefly  directed  to  the  working  classes,  and  it  is 
among  the  artisans  who  have  either  no  connection 
with  the  Christian  churches,  or  but  a  very  slight  one, 
that  they  greatly  succeed.  A  mission  to  such  classes 
has  been  talked  of  By  all  means  let  us  have  it. 
But  let  us  see  that  is  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  case.  We  would  deprecate,  in  our  usual  church 
ministrations,  any  great  departure  from  existing  forms 
of  worship.  But,  in  order  to  the  working  of  the 
agency  for  which  we  plead,  there  should  be  meetings 
for  the  classes  referred  to  held  without  the  perform- 
ance of  any  act  of  worship  properly  so  called.  It 
was  so  in  the  Paris  conferences.  These  meetings 
must  be  addressed  by  Christian  men  of  good  temper, 
and  clear  argumentative  power,  who  will  speak  to  their 
deeply-prejudiced  hearers,  and  argue  with  them,  as 
Paul  did  on  Mars  Hill,  in  the  school  of  Tyrannus, 
and  in  other  places.  This  would  prove  a  meet  and 
valuable  practical  measure  consequent  on  the  inquiry 
which  has  been  instituted  into  the  prevalent  forms 
and  workings  of  modern  infidelity. 

Let  our  evangelical  churches  abide  firmly  hj  their 


548  THE    CLUBS. 

ancient  creeds,  in  so  far  as  they  harmonize  with  "  the 
law  and  the  testimony,"  and  determine  to  know 
nothing  among  men  saving  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified;  but  let  them,  without  compromise,  adapt 
themselves  more  to  the  growing  intelligence  and 
thinking  habits  of  the  age.  Let  our  Home  Mission 
and  Christian  Instruction  Agency  Societies  prosecute 
with  increased  vigor  the  work  which  they  have  be- 
gun of  carrying  the  light  of  life  into  the  dark  dwell- 
ings of  the  poor  and  ignorant.  Let  our  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  multiply  in  every  city  and 
town,  in  order  to  preserve,  or  snatch,  our  generous 
youth  from  the  apostles  of  systems  of  delusion.  But 
let  us  have  another  association,  or,  at  least,  another 
kind  of  instrumentality  for  battling  with  the  infideli- 
ties of  our  knowing  artisans,  the  evils  which  are  chiefly 
to  be  dreaded  in  the  present  social  state  of  civilized 
lands.  Men  of  power  and  tact,  as  well  as  zeal  and 
piety,  are  required  here.  Such  men  we  doubt  not 
are  to  be  found.  The  Church  of  Christ,  in  these 
lands,  is  strong  in  her  resources.  Only  let  them  be 
drawn  out  and  rightly  applied.  We  have  no  fear  so 
long  as,  to  use  the  words  of  Milton,  truth  is  in  the 
field;  only  let  her  have  all  the  advantages  of  free 
speech,  press,  and  association. 

•  We  are  glad  to  see  that  a  mission  to  the  working  classes  in  re- 
lation to  Infidelity,  has,  since  writing  the  above,  been  begun. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    SCHOOLS. 

Powerful  influence  of  Educational  Institutions — Defect  in  our  com 
mon  Schools — Want  of  a  Christian  atmosphere  in  higher  Semina- 
ries— Dr.  Maberly's  testimony — Dr.  Arnold's  exertions — Oxford 
and  Cambridge  —  Countenance  given  to  rationalism  and  Semi- 
Popery — Secessions  to  Rome  and  to  the  Infidel  ranks — Scottish 
Schools — St.  Andrew's  at  the  end  of  the  last  century — Continental 
Europe — Philosophy  in  France — Subserviency  of  Education  to 
Romanism  —  Influence  of  German  Schools  in  propagating  Infi 
delity — Pedagogy— Pantheistic  Philosophy  at  Berlm  —  Neology 
at  Halle — Dr.  Paulus  of  Heidelberg — Coimteractive  Influence  of 
Neander,  Tholuck,  &c. — Infidel  teaching  in  the  Universities  of 
Holland — Unitarian  Rationalism  of  the  College  of  Geneva — Noble 
Influence  of  the  New  Academy — A  Christianized  University. 

It  is  obvious  that  ttie  educational  institutions  of  a 
country  must  exert  a  powerful  influence,  for  good  or 
evil,  on  the  faith  and  morals  of  its  inhabitants.  They 
mould,  in  a  great  measure,  the  public  mind.  From 
the  venerable  university  down  to  the  humble  village 
school,  they  are  sources  of  moral  power  which  tell 
continuously  on  the  national  sentiments  and  character. 
Dr.  Arnold,  on  hearing  of  new  comers  to  Rugby,  said, 
"  It  is  a  most  touching  thing  to  me,  to  receive  a  new 
fellow  from  his  father,  when  I  think  what  an  influ- 
ence there  is  in  this  place  for  evil,  as  well  as  for 
good."     The  amount  of  power  wielded  by  such  agen- 


550  THE   SCHOOLS. 

cies  diifers,  no  doubt  at  different  periods,  and  in 
different  lands.  Some  universities,  wliose  renown 
extended  far  and  wide  a  century  or  two  ago,  are  now 
like  tlie  shadow  of  a  great  name ;  while  others,  which 
have  sprung  up  more  recently,  have  all  the  vigor 
and  power  of  manhood.  We  walk  amid  the  shades 
of  some,  just  as  we  tread  half-deserted  palaces,  whose 
life  and  gaiety  are  gone,  and  for  their  influence  we 
must  look  to  the  records  of  the  past.  We  stand  by 
others  as  at  a  fountain  head,  whence  are  ever  issuing 
streams  that  enrich  or  desolate  the  land,  and  can  say — • 
here  is  an  instrumentality  of  good,  or  an  instrument- 
ality of  evil.  In  some  countries,  the  lesser  schools, 
which  are  branched  out  over  the  land,  are  exerting 
the  influence  that  once  belonged  to  the  greater 
seats  of  learning.  In  other  places,  the  amount  of 
power  wielded  by  such  institutions  is  much  dimin- 
ished or  counteracted,  by  the  operation  of  other 
agencies.  But,  in  general,  the  schools,  higher  and 
lower,  are  felt,  in  every  land  where  they  exist,  to  be  no 
mean  agencies  in  the  dissemination  of  sentiments,  and 
in  the  formation  of  character.  Governments,  whether 
civil  or  ecclesiastical,  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic, 
are  fully  aware  of  this.  The  debates  in  the  senate, 
the  discussions  in  church  courts,  and  the  conflict 
often  maintained  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
powers  about  such  institutions,  show  the  vast  import- 
ance attached  to  them  as  agencies  in  moulding  the 
mind  of  the  people.  Men  who  wish  to  give  the 
streams  a  particular  tinge  or  turn,  fight  for  the  j^os- 
session  of  the  fountain.     They  who  would   steer   the 


THE    SCHOOLS.  551 

ship  on  a  certain  track,  seek  the  command  of  the 
helm.  Be  it  the  disciple  of  Loyola,  eager  for  the 
universal  sway  of  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  devoted 
son ;  or  the  mere  politician,  careful  only  to  advance 
his  schemes  of  state  policy ;  be  it  the  zealous  Chris- 
tian reformer,  heedless  of  party  ends,  but  anxious 
above  all  things  to  leaven  society  with  the  pure  Gos- 
pel ;  or  the  no  less  zealous  infidel,  who  would  wish- 
full  scope  for  his  schemes  of  social  regeneration;  all 
look  to  the  schools,  the  educational  institutions,  as  the 
levers  by  which  they  could  move  and  influence  the 
public  mind. 

It  is  one  of  the  cheering  signs  of  the  times,  that 
the  state  of  our  public  schools,  higher  and  lower,  is 
occupying  so  much  the  thoughts  of  patriotic  and 
Christian  men.  The  amount  of  education  comes  far 
short  of  the  requirements  of  the  country,  and  the 
character  of  much  of  what  exists  is  either  inferior  in 
itself  or  surrounded  by  unhealthy  influences.  These 
things  have  been  placed  beyond  dispute,  by  the  Re- 
port of  the  Government  Commission  of  inquiry.  The 
secular  instruction  of  many  of  the  lower  schools  is 
glaringly  defective ;  while,  notwithstanding  the  grow- 
ing improvement  in  this  respect,  there  is  a  great  want 
of  healthy,  vigorous,  attractive,  religious  teaching. 
Difiiculties  indeed  beset  the  subject.  But,  in  the  full 
view  of  all  these  difiiculties,  we  hold  by  the  clear  tan- 
gible principle  that  the  religious  element  is  indispens- 
able to  a  sound  and  elevating  system  of  education. 
The  mode  in  which  religious  instruction  has  been 
Imparted,  in   a  large  proportion  of  our   schools,  has 


552  THE    SCHOOLS. 

been  far  from,  satisfactory.  It  has  tended  to  make 
young  people  formalists  rather  than  to  inspire  them 
with  a  loving  regard  for  the  truth  of  Scripture.  This 
fact  is  being  recognized  in  many  quarters;  and  the 
more  excellent  way  is  being  followed  of  rescuing  the 
Bible  from  the  position  of  a  mere  task  book,  and  of 
informing  the  mind,  and  impressing  the  conscience, 
with  its  histories,  doctrines  and  precepts.  Let  re- 
ligion be  shut  out  from  the  daily  school,  and  irreligion 
will  grow  up  and  abound,  just  as  weeds  overrun  a 
garden  which  is  not  properly  cropped  and  cultivated. 
Or  let  religion  be  taught  merely  as  a  matter  of  dull 
routine,  and  a  habit  of  formalism  may  be  contracted, 
which  it  may  take  much  to  loosen.  Without  expect- 
ing too  much  from  improved  systems  of  education, 
we  cannot  help  thinking  that  had  the  religious  ele- 
ment in  teaching  occupied  in  our  schools,  generally, 
the  genial  and  influential  place  which  it  ought  to 
occupy,  young  men,  in  passing  from  the  school  to  the 
factory  or  workshop,  would  not  have  become  so  often 
the  prey  of  the  infidel. 

Many  of  the  higher  seminaries  of  the  country  are 
renowned  for  their  scholarship,  whence  many  young 
persons  pertaining  to  the  educated  classes  are  drafted 
off  every  year  to  the  universities.  Not  a  few  dis- 
tinguished Christian  teachers  are  to  be  found  in 
some  of  these  schools.  But,  as  has  recently  been 
remarked,  "their  presence  does  not  sufiice  to  create 
a  Christian  atmosphere.  Their  influence  is  neutral- 
ized by  the  contrary  influence  of  others."^     Upwards 

'  Evangelical  Christendom,  vol.  vi.,  p.  94. 


THE   SCHOOLS.  553 

of  five  and  twenty  years  ago,  tlie  want  of  anything 
like  a  systematic  effort  to  give  a  thorouglily  Christian 
character  to  the  education  of  the  higher  classes,  was, 
in  many  quarters,  keenly  felt.  It  was  about  this 
period  that  Dr.  Arnold  was  elected  to  Rugby,  where 
he  began  to  practise,  what  he  so  energetically  advo- 
cated, making  our  public  schools  places  of  really 
Christian  education.  He  endeavored  to  create  (the 
absence  of  which  seemed  to  him  the  great  cause  of 
all  the  evil,)  a  -public  opinion  among  the  scholars 
themselves  in  favor  of  decidedly  Christian  principles, 
so  that  each  new  comer  might  find  himself  at  once 
in  a  healthy  moral  atmosphere.  The  testimony  of 
Dr.  Maberly,  head  master  at  Winchester,  at  once 
shows  the  irreligious  influences  of  many  of  our  public 
schools  at  the  period  referred  to,  and  the  beneficial 
change  introduced  by  the  great  and  good  Arnold. 
"  The  tone  of  young  men  at  the  university,"  he  re- 
marks, "whether  they  came  from  Winchester,  Eton, 
Rugby,  Harrow,  or  wherever  else,  was  universally  ir- 
religious. A  religious  under-graduate  was  very  rare, 
very  much  laughed  at  when  he  appeared,  and  I  think 
I  may  say  hardly  to  be  found  among  public-school 
men;  or,  if  this  be  too  strongly  expressed,  hardly  to 
be  found  except  in  cases  where  private  and  domestic 
training,  or  good  dispositions,  had  prevailed  over  the 
school  habits  and  tendencies."  "Dr.  Arnold's  pupils," 
he  adds,  "were  thoughtful,  manly-minded,  conscious 
of  duty  and  obligation,  when  they  first  came  to  col- 
lege."^ Genuine  religion  has,  of  late  years,  been  pro- 
'  Stanley's  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Arnold,  vol.  ii. 


554  THE    SCHOOLS. 

gressing  among  the  higher  classes  of  our  country, 
and  while  improvement  has  been  carried  into  the 
schools,  that  improvement  has  not  been  so  thorough 
and  beneficent  as  Christian  parents  would  wish,  for 
the  sake  of  their  sons,  that  it  were.  Enlightened, 
liberal,  good  men,  still  complain,  that  Eton,  Harrow, 
Rugby,  and  other  public  schools,  want  that  supremacy 
of  the  Christian  influence,  without  which  the  sons  of 
the  educated  classes  will  lie  open  to  the  inroads  of 
infidelity. 

Oxford  and  Cambridge  rise  up  before  the  mind  at 
once,  in  proceeding  to  notice  the  universities  of  Eng- 
land. With  these  venerable  seats  of  learning,  are 
associated  some  of  the  greatest  names  that  have 
adorned  the  British  senate  and  the  British  churches, 
and  that  have  given  our  country  a  world-wide  renown 
for  its  brilliant  literature  and  scientific  achievements. 
Here  the  scions  of  our  nobility  are  taught,  and  re- 
ceive, in  a  great  measure,  their  mental  moulding. 
And  here,  as  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  the  youth 
of  every  rank,  destined  to  fill  the  pulpits  of  the  Eng- 
lish Establishment,  imbibe,  for  the  most  part,  those 
principles  which  they  are  henceforth  to  disseminate 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  The  great 
influence  of  the  teaching  of  these  schools  on  the 
English  mind,  from  the  peer  down  to  the  peasant, 
is  obvious.  It  is  true  that  their  power,  for  good  or 
evil,  is  not  so  great  as  when  they  furnished  nearly  all 
the  instruction  that  was  given  to  the  educated  youth 
of  our   country.^     The  Non-conformists,  who  are  ex- 

'  The  Oxford  Commission  Eeport  estimates  the  number  k^  students 


THE   SCHOOLS.  555 

eluded  by  statute  from  these  old  universities,  have 
their  academic  institutions  in  considerable  numbers 
and  efficiency,  and  presided  over  by  men,  many  of 
whom  would  adorn  the  chairs  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge. 
But  as  the  mountains  rise  above  the  hills,  so  are 
these  two  ancient  seats  of  learning  among  the  more 
modern  schools  that  possess  the  land.  They  are  still 
entitled  to  their  old  distinctive  appellation — the  eyes 
of  England,  however  much  these  eyes  need  to  be 
purged. 

It  is  not  of  their  ancient  glory,  but  of  their  recent 
influence,  and  that  especially  in  its  bearing  on  our 
common  Scriptural  Christianity,  that  we  speak.  And 
truth  demands  the  statement  that  these  two  schools, 
which  once,  as  Thomas  Fuller,  in  his  filial  regard, 
says,  "became  the  fruitful  nurseries  of  Protestant 
worthies,  to  the  envy  and  admiration  of  all  Christen- 
dom,"^ have,  of  late,  to  a  great  extent,  proved  the  hot- 
beds of  Romanism  and  of  an  infidel  sentimentalism. 
Sir  W.  Hamilton  has  said,  "  the  nearest  approxima- 
tion to  the  learned  freedom  of  the  German  divines, 
and  the  most  enthusiastic  encomiasts  of  their  writings, 
have  been  found  among  the  English  clergy,  and  in 
that   clergy,  among  the   teachers  and   dignitaries   of 

actually  resident  in  Oxford  at  the  present  time  to  be  about  1,300; 
wbich  is  a  greater  number  than  at  any  time  in  the  last  two  centuries. 
The  number  of  students  at  Cambridge  is  greater.  Mr.  Hallam  re- 
marks (Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  vol.  iii.,  p.  526,)  that  "  at 
Oxford  under  Henry  III,  it  is  said  that  there  were  30,000  scholars  ; 
an  exaggeration  which  seems  to  imply  that  the  real  number  was 
very  great." 

'  Fuller's  History  of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 


556  THE    SCHOOLS. 

tlie     Ensflish    universities."^     These    two    enemies — 
rationalism    and    semi-Popery — ^have    been,  and   still 
are,  the  besetting  dangers  of  the  English  clergy,  and 
no   wonder,  considering   the  countenance   they  have 
received   in    the   high   places   of   learning.     Men  in 
the  situations,  and  with   the  authority  of  Lloyd  and 
Marsh,  (the    former    many   years   ago    professor    of 
Hebrew  in  Cambridge,  the  latter  late  Margaret  pro- 
fessor of  divinity  in  the  same  university,)  endeavored 
to  promote    the  study  of    Eichhorn  and   his   school 
among  the  academic  youth.     Great  has  been  the  joy 
in  the  Vatican  at  Oxford  tendencies,  and  the  chiefs 
of  "our  Lord,  the   Pope,"  did  not   fail   to  repair  to 
the  banks  of  the  Isis  to  express  it.     "Most  sincerely 
and  unaffectedly,"  said   the  "  Catholic   Magazine,"  a 
few  years  ago,  "  do  we  tender  our  congratulations  to 
our  brethren  of  Oxford,  that   their  eyes  have  been 
opened  to   the  evils   of  private  judgment,    and    the 
consequent  necessity  of  curbing  its  multiform  extrav- 
agance." 

The  quaint  historian  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, tells  of  a  grave  divine  preaching  before  the 
university,  at  St.  Mary's  more  than  two  centuries  ago, 
who  had  this  "smart  passage"  in  his  sermon:  "That, 
as  at  the  Olympian  games  he  was  counted  the  con- 
queror who  could  drive  his  chariot  wheels  nearest 
the  mark,  yet  so  as  not  to  hinder  his  running,  or  to 
stick  thereon, 

metaque  fervidis 


Evitata  rotis  ;- 


'  Sir  W.  Hamiltoa's  Discussions,  p.  507,  508. 


THE    SCHOOLS.  557 

SO  he  wlio  in  his  sermons  could  preach  near  popery, 
and  yet  no  popery,  'there  was  your  man.'"  This, 
Dr.  Fuller  follows  up  by  a  remark  applicable  to  our 
own  time :  "  It  now  began  to  be  the  general  com- 
plaint of  most  moderate  men,  that  many  in  the  uni- 
versity, both  in  the  schools  and  pulpits,  approached  the 
opinions  of  the  church  of  Rome  nearer  than  ever 
before."  Many  of  our  modern  university  charioteers 
have  been  running  a  like  course.  Not  a  few,  how- 
ever, have  driven  the  chariot  wheels  up  to  the  mark, 
and  have  stuck  thereon.  Open  desertions  to  the 
church  of  Rome,  the  result  for  the  most  part  of  uni- 
versity teaching,  have  taken  place;  and,  as  one  of 
her  distinguished  evangelical  ministers  has  recently 
said,  "  enough  remain  behind,  tainted  with  the  same 
principles,  and  imbued  with  the  same  doctrines,  to 
make  the  Church  of  England  like  a  camp  divided 
against  itself,  where  two  parties,  representing  the 
Middle  Age  and  the  Reformation,  are  in  open  and 
almost  deadly  hostility  one  to  the  other. "^ 

The  English  Universities,  as  regards  pecuniary  en- 
dowments, are  the  wealthiest  in  Europe;  but,  in 
contrast  with  this,  is  their  inefi&ciency  in  advancing 
the  cause  of  an  enlarged  and  healthy  education. 
They  have,  in  this  respect,  come  to  be  looked  upon 
rather  as  counteractives,  than  as  auxiliaries.  The 
physical  sciences  at  Oxford  have  long  been  in  a  de- 
pressed condition.  The  Tutorial  system  has  absorbed 
the     Professorial.     Distinguished    professors     of    as- 

"  The  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  1 49. 


558  THE   SCHOOLS. 

tronomy,  geology,  and  other  branches  of  physical 
science,  can  scarcely  form  a  class.  But  the  crying 
evil  is  the  want  of  efficient  theological  training.  It  is 
as  a  school  of  sacred  learning — a  chief  avenue  to  the 
ministry  of  the  Established  Church — that  Oxford  is 
to  be  regarded ;  and  with  ample  means  for  theologi- 
cal teaching — the  theological  chairs  being  the  best 
endowed  in  the  University — theology  itself,  as  was 
shown  in  the  evidence  before  the  University  Com- 
mission, is  there  at  a  low  ebb.  "  No  efficient  means," 
says  the  invaluable  report,  "at  present  exist  in  the 
University  for  training  candidates  for  holy  Orders  in 
those  studies  which  belong  peculiarly  to  their  profess- 
ion. .  .  The  University  must  be  to  blame  if 
theological  studies  languish.  Few  of  the  clergy 
apply  themselves  in  earnest  to  the  study  of  Hebrew. 
Ecclesiastical  History,  some  detached  portions  ex- 
cepted, is  unknown  to  the  great  majority.  The  his- 
tory of  doctrines  has  scarcely  been  treated  in  this 
country.  It  may  be  safely  stated,  that  the  epistles  of 
St.  Paul  have  not  been  studied  critically  by  the  great 
bulk  of  those  in  orders."^  The  theology,  which  has 
found  favor  at  the  Alma  Mater  of  Laud  and  Sache- 
verel,  is  patriotic  rather  than  Biblical.  The  spirit  of 
the  Reformation  has  all  along  had  to  struggle  there 
with  the  evil  genius  of  a  modified  popery.  Oxford, 
more  than  ever,  has  become  the  great  school  of  a 
corrupt  theology.  It  is  this  theology  that  we  rank 
among  the    anti-Christian   systems    of   the   age;  and 

*  Oxford  Commission  Pteport  p.  71,  (1852.) 


THE    SCHOOLS.  559 

Oxford,  the  seat  of  its  strength,  we  look  upon  as 
having  gained  an  unenviable  distinction  among 
British  schools,  in  doing  service  on  the  side  of  evil. 

We  need  not  enter  into  any  minute  details  of  the 
Tractarian   heresy.     It  is  not   a   system  shrouded  in 
mystery.     The  Oxford  writers  have  fully  enunciated 
it  in  tract  after  tract.     Their  disciples  promulgate  it 
week  after  week  from  many  of  the  pulpits  of  the  land. 
It  has  been  battled  with  both  by  great  men  and  small. 
The  goodly  octavo  volume,  the  brilliant  review,  the 
little  pamphlet,  have  exposed  this  great  foe  of  Scrip- 
tural Christianity,  driven  it  crest-fallen  from  the  pre- 
eminence to  which   it  was  aspiring  in  literature;  if 
not,  in  other  respects,  having  checked  its  march.     It 
is  a  corrupting  and  destructive  bastard  in  the  church 
of  the  Eeformation — a  system  of  spiritual  despotism, 
of  awful   delusion,    tending    to   undermine   the   very 
foundations  of  evangelical  truth,  and  social  morality. 
The  spirit  of  her  Reformers  frowns  upon  it.     It  gives 
the  lie  to  her  doctrinal   articles;  and  is  much  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  an  avowed  infidel  enemy.     It  may 
have  been  one  of  the  forms  of  reaction  against  the 
materialism  of  the  age,  but  compared  with  the  spiritual 
Christianity  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  gross  mate- 
rialism itself     It  may  have  originated  in  a  reviving 
earnestness,  and,  as   the   author   of  the    'Nemesis  of 
Faith'  declares,  "in  a  desire  of  the  church  to  win  back 
the  love  of  her  children,  to  dro.w  them  from  doing  to 
praying,  from  early  hours  in  the  ofiice,  or  in  the  field, 
to  matins  and  daily  service."^     But,  like  every  form  of 
'  Nemesis  of  Faith,  p.  154 


560  THE    SCHOOLS. 

corrupt  Christianity,  it  is  likely  to  foster  infidelity 
under  its  ecclesiastical  pageantry,  and  provoke  the 
spirit  of  an  infidel  reaction  against  the  despotism 
which  it  imposes. 

Such  is  the  influence  exerted  by  the  Oxford  school. 
From  the  bosom  of  this  university,  have  gone  forth 
large  numbers  of  the  guides  and  teachers  of  the 
people,  impregnated  with  a  set  of  religious  principles 
alike  opposed  to  the  church  under  whose  shadow  they 
abide,  and  destructive  of  that  Gospel  whose  ministers 
they  profess  to  be.  This  anti-scriptural  influence 
is  brought  to  bear  week  after  week,  and  day  after  day, 
on  many  of  the  schools  and  churches  in  our  English 
towns  and  rural  parishes.  Nor  is  the  heart  of  the  evil 
less  active  in  its  movements  than  it  was,  now  that  the 
excitement  of  the  first  battle  is  past.  "  A  voice  from 
Oxford,"  whose  witness  is  true,  has  said :  "  Many  seem 
to  think  that  the  influence  of  the  Romanizing  party 
in  the  University,  is  on  the  decline,  and  that  their 
doctrines  have  fallen  into  disrepute ;  but  it  is  far 
otherwise.  Open  aggression,  on  their  part,  may  not  be 
so  rife  as  during  the  publication  of  the  Tracts  for  the 
Times  ;  but  their  action  is  perhaps  more  vigorous  than 
ever,  and  their  quiescence  only  apparent.  A  great 
portion  of  the  young  clergy,  and  of  those  looking  for- 
ward to  holy  Orders,  while  professedly  deriving  health- 
ful nourishment  from  their  Alma  Matei\  drink  in  the 
poisonous  heresy ;  and,  when  scattered  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  they  will  be  inactive  or  indifferent 
to  the  propagation  of    those   Romish   doctrines   and 


THE    SCHOOLS.  561 

principles  with  which  they  have  been  impregnat- 
ed." 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  and  tells  on  what  side  our 
old  English  universities  are  doing  service,  that  within 
a  short  period,  about  a  hundred  members  of  Oxford 
and  fifty  of  Cambridge,  have  passed  over  to  the 
Romish  communion.  The  great  modern  satirist  has 
said,  "according  to  the  ancient  proverb,  'every  road 
leads  to  Rome,'  but  the  nearest  way  is  the  Tracts 
through  Oxford."  "Newmanism,"  said  Dr.  Arnold, 
when  the  water  was  just  letting  out,  "  Newmanism,  1 
suppose,  will  grow  and  grow,  till  it  provokes  a  reaction 
of  infidelity."  The  reaction  has  begun.  The  house 
has  been  divided  against  itself  In  the  brothers 
Newman,  not  to  mention  others,  we  see  the  double 
workings  of  the  system.  A  large  and  increasing- 
party  has  shot  over  to  Rome ;  a  smaller,  but  still  an 
increasing  party,  has  been  drifted  on  till  they  landed 
in  unbelief  The  evil  is  great.  Oxford  is  giving  to 
our  country,  and  sending  abroad,  the  religion  of  man 
for  the  religion  of  God.  And  whatever  glory  from  the 
past  may  encircle  her,  she  now  occupies  the  bad  pre- 
eminence among  British  schools,  in  corrupting  the 
truth  of  Christ, 

The  educational  institutions  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  island,  whatever  may  be  their  imperfections 
otherwise,  are  not  chargeable,  in  our  day  at  least,  of 
exerting  any  direct  influence  that  is  adverse  to  Bible 
Christianity.  Scotland,  as  a  nation,  has  long  occu- 
pied a  proud  position  among  the  other  civilized  na- 
tions of  the  world,  for  the  religious  intelligence  of  her 

36 


562  THE    SCHOOLS. 

people.  This  doubtless  lias  been  partly  owing  to  lier 
parish  schools,  which,  however  sectarian  now  in  their 
character,  and  needing  to  be  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
the  age,  have  been,  in  some  measure,  the  means  of 
grounding  her  youth  in  scriptural  knowledge  to  an 
extent  which  strikingly  contrasts  with  the  southern 
division  of  the  country.  Scotland  has  had  her  sys- 
tems of  rank  scepticism  and  infidelity,  which  have 
told  for  evil  far  beyond  her  own  land,  and  throughout 
generations;  but  these  have,  generally,  been  found 
without  the  pale  of  her  high  seats  of  learning,  and, 
in  her  famed  schools,  have  met  with  their  stoutest 
antagonists. 

But  our  northern  universities  cannot  be  altogethei 
exempted  from  the  charge  of  having  done  some  ser- 
vice on  the  wrong  side.  Their  moral  philosophies, 
like  the  moral  philosophies  of  the  age  in  general,  have 
too  much  ignored  Christianity  as  a  remedied  system, 
if  they  have  not  placed  themselves  in  antagonism  to 
it.  And  we  cannot  but  regard  it,  as  a  disastrous 
thing,  that  the  lessons  of  the  moral  teacher,  if  not 
given  from  under  the  shadow  of  the  cross,  should  fail 
to  point  the  way  to  it.  The  great  sin  of  them  all,  as 
has  often  been  noticed,  has  been  the  want  of  a  dis- 
tinct recognition  of  human  depravity ;  and  in  failing  to 
conduct  their  disciples  to  such  a  turn  at  the  end  of 
the  road,  as  that  on  looking  up  they  might  at  once 
see  the  finger-post  that  points  to  the  faith  and  hope 
of  the  gospel.  The  theological  chairs,  both  in  the 
endowed  and  unendowed  schools,  have  often  felt  it 
necessary,  in   their   prelections,  to  counteract  the  in- 


THE    SCHOOLS.  563 

fluence  of  such  adverse  teaching,  instead  of  being  free 
to  treat  at  once  of  the  grand  remedy,  the  way  to  which 
should  at  least  have  been  indicated  by  the  moral  pre- 
lections. The  ethical  chairs  of  some  of  our  Scottish 
schools,  have  been  filled  by  men  of  a  more  than 
European  reputation ;  but  in  their  systems,  generally, 
ethics  have  been  very  much  divorced  from  Christian- 
ity, and  attempts  have  been  made  to  build  up  and 
complete  the  one  without  the  other. 

But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  matter  of  fact  that  at  the 
close  of  last  century,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent, the  period  when  a  baptized  pagan  philosophy 
held  place  in  our  Scottish  schools,  an  appalling  dead- 
ness  had,  to  a  considerable  extent,  crept  over  the 
church  establishment.  A  cold  inoperative  morality 
was  substituted  for  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  Gospel. 
Gross  heresies  were  winked  at,  or  softly  admonished, 
by  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  judicatories.  Men  held 
an  orthodox  creed  in  their  hands  which  they  had 
solemnly  vowed  to  exhibit,  while  doctrines  dropped 
from  their  lips  which  tended  to  destroy  or  cast  it 
aside.  The  state  of  the  universities  at  that  period  is 
made  known  by  one  who  speaks  from  personal  experi- 
ence. Dr.  Chalmers,  speaking  of  the  oldest  of  these 
venerable  seats  of  learning,  says,  "  St.  Andrew's  was, 
at  this  time  (end  of  last  century),  overrun  with  Moder- 
atism,  under  the  chilling  influences  of  which  we  in- 
haled not  a  distaste  only,  but  a  positive  contempt  for 
all  that  is  properly  and  peculiarly  gospel;  insomuch 
that  our  confidence  was  nearly  as  entire  in  the  suf 
ficiency  of  natural  theology,  as  in  the  sufficiency  of 


564  THE    SCHOOLS. 

natural  science."  The  biographer  of  the  great  and 
good  man  remarks,  that  from  the  religious  lapse  into 
which  he  had  been  seduced  at  his  Alma  Mater ^  "it 
needed  many  years,  and  other  than  human  influences 
to  recall  him."^  This  case,  of  itself,  shows  the  moral 
power  which  a  university  exerts  on  young  and  ardent 
minds,  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  its  studies  and 
charmed  with  its  associations;  and  leaves  us  to 
imagine  how  many  who  have  sat  under  the  shadow 
of  such  seats  of  learning,  may  have  imbibed  a  similar 
disrelish  for  spiritual  Christianity;  and  how  wide- 
spread it  may  have  been,  and  how  disastrous  its  in- 
fluence, if  not  overcome  by  another  and  a  mightier 
influence  than  human.  We  are  not  forgetful,  how- 
ever, of  the  great  agency  of  our  Scottish  schools  for 
good,  while  we  make  mention  of  their  agency,  es- 
pecially in  the  past,  for  evil.  Nor  can  we  forbear 
adv*erting  to  the  fact  that  the  logical  and  metaphys- 
ical chair  of  Edinburgh  is,  at  the  present  day, 
filled  by  the  most  distinguished  philosopher  of  the 
age,  and  that  his  philosophy  is  at  once  profound  and 
healthy,  counteractive  of  scepticism,  and  subservient  to 
truth. 

But  let  us  turn  to  Continental  Europe.  There, 
infidelity,  in  its  many  forms,  comes  more  broadly 
and  palpably  before  our  view ;  and  there  the  influence 
of  the  schools  is  more  powerfully  exerted  on  the  side 
of  it.  In  everything  relating  to  language,  science, 
and  art,  the  educational  institutions  of  France  might 

'  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  i.,  p.  15. 


THE   SCHOOLS.  565 

be  said  to  be  almost  perfect.  These  departments, 
with  their  full  complement  of  sections,  leave  nothing 
wanting,  viewed  merely  as  a  great  system  of  human 
knowledge.  But  the  wisdom  that  cometh  from  above 
has  little  or  no  part  in  it.  Christianity  as  a  remedial 
economy,  is  either  disowned  by  French  philosophy, 
or  the  theological  faculty,  which  should  represent 
it,  is  dedicated  not  to  the  pure  and  nndefiled,  but  to 
the  corrupt  form.  Philosophy,  in  the  schools  of 
France,  has  been  allied  either  with  a  gross  mate- 
rialism, or  a  proud  spiritualism ;  and,  in  either  case, 
has  had  an  influence  adverse  to  the  truth  of  God. 
During  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century,  and  the  early 
part  of  the  present,  an  infidel  sensationalism  s?vt 
in  the  high  places  of  learning,  and  gave  forth  its 
oracles.  This  became  the  predominant  doctrine  in 
France ;  and  from  it  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopaedists 
deduced  those  gross  infidel  principles  which  desolated 
the  land.  For  the  last  twenty-five  years.  Cousin, 
the  eloquent  "apostle  of  Rationalism  in  France," 
and  others  of  the  Eclectic  school,  have  been  incul- 
cating, in  the  Ecole  Normale,  at  Paris,  a  system 
much  more  favorable  to  pantheism  than  to  the 
Christian  revelation;  and  have  raised  up  not  a  few 
instructors  to  disseminate  the  same  throughout  the 
country.  The  Jesuits  in  France,  at  the  present  day, 
are  striving  to  get  the  schools  of  every  grade  com- 
pletely under  their  control.  Government,  by  its 
concessions  to  the  clerical  power,  has  opened  the 
door  to  them.  Ultramontanism  is  in  the  ascendant. 
The  university  has  become  subservient  to  Romanism. 


566  THE    SCHOOLS. 

Protestant  schools,  in  consequence  of  Romish  interfer- 
ence, have  to  struggle  with  a  load  of  dif&culties ;  while 
the  educational  institutions  in  general,  and  the  village 
schools  especially,  are  wielded  for  advancing  a  corrupt 
religious  system,  which  in  turn  provokes  a  reaction  in 
favor  of  infidelity. 

In  Germany,  the  university  life  is  seen  to  be  all- 
important,  and  the  teaching  of  the  professors  to  be 
greatly  influential.  The  great  religious  movements 
that  have  ever  and  anon  blessed  the  German  father- 
land, are  to  be  traced  up  to  the  seats  of  learning.  It 
was  so  in  the  past,  and  it  is  so  at  the  present  day. 
But  if  the  German  schools  have  the  credit  of  those 
revivals  that  have  been  as  streams  in  the  desert,^  they 
have  also  the  unenviable  renown  of  having  been  the 
chief  agencies  in  sending  abroad  that  amount  of 
infidelity  which  has  desolated  both  the  church  and 
tTie  state.  It  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  the  schools  of 
every  grade  were,  almost  without  exception,  under 
the  influence  of  men  whose  opinions  were  adverse 
to  Scriptural  Christianity.  Rationalistic  teachers 
presided  over  the  elementary  schools.  There  the 
truth,  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  was  gradually  undermined. 
The  German  youth  imbibed  infidelity  with  their 
earliest  lessons,  and  hence  the  readiness  of  the 
adult  population  to  abjure  the  very  symbols  of  the 
Christian     faith.       Tholuck    tells    us    that,    even    in 

'  e.  g.  Wittcmberg  produced  the  Keformation ;  Halle,  under 
Francke's  influence  became  a  source  of  life  to  the  German 
churches. 


THE    SCHOOLS.  567 

boyhood,  infidelity  had  forced  its  way  into  his  heart, 
and  that  at  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  wont  to  scofi 
at  Christianity.  And  how  decided  must  have  been 
the  infidel  spirit  that  pervaded  the  schools,  when 
it  happened  not  only  that  his  unbelief  strengthened 
during  his  stay  at  the  Gymnasium,  but  that,  on 
leaving  it,  he  was  suff'ered  to  maintain,  in  an  oration, 
the  superiority  of  Mahomedanism  to  Christianity. 
This  case  is  somewhat  solitary  only  on  account  of 
the  illustrious  name  associated  with  it.  Thousands, 
unknown  to  fame,  who  have  lived  and  died  infidels, 
could  have  pointed  to  the  lower  and  higher  schools 
as  the  agencies  of  their  unbelief  And,  at  the 
present  day,  in  which  infidelity  is  still  so  prevalent, 
if  the  faithful  men  in  Germany  are  asked  to  account 
for  such  a  general  abandonment  of  the  faith  by 
the  male  population,  they  at  once  refer,  among  other 
agencies,  to  the  infidel  influences  of  the  schools. 
Many  of  the  schoolmasters  in  the  country  parishes, 
and  the  higher  teachers  in  the  gymnasia,  are  decided 
rationalists,  who,  though  under  the  necessity  of 
using  the  Bible,  accompany  their  teachings  with 
such  comments  as  tend  to  make  their  scholars 
avowed  unbelievers.  Institutions,  designed  to  instil 
into  the  minds  of  youth  the  principles  of  Christian 
truth,  have  thus,  in  a  great  measure,  become  nurse- 
ries of  the  most  withering  scepticism.^ 

'  "  Pedagogy,"  says  Dr.  Krummaclier,  "  in  respect  to  evangelical 
faith,  has  not  kept  pace  with  theology ;  on  the  contrary,  the  ration- 
alist maxims  of  Dinter  and  Diesterweg  continue  to  prevail  in  most 
of  the  elementary  schools.  .  .  The  people  in  general  are  continually 
nourished  with  the  milk  of   the  old  false  enlightening,  and   robbed 


568  THE    SCHOOLS. 

The  universities  also,  about  tlie  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  and  till  within  the  last  few  years 
(in  which  a  decided  change  has  taken  place,  espe- 
cially in  the  theological  faculty),  were  almost  entirely 
exerting  the  same  evil  influence.  In  a  former  part 
of  this  essay,  we  have  spoken  of  the  bitter  fruits 
which  the  German  speculative  philosophy  has  borne 
in  the  field  of  German  theology.  It  is  to  an  extreme 
philosophical  influence,  we  have  seen,  that  all  the 
rationalistic  and  pantheistic  views,  which  have  been 
developed  by  the  German  theologians,  are  to  be 
ascribed.  That  influence  has  had  its  chief  seat 
in  the  universities.  Hegel,  whose  philosophy  de- 
stroyed the  personality  of  God,  and  included  in 
its  sweep  of  necessary  development,  the  whole  Christ- 
tian  doctrine,  occupied  for  many  years  an  influential 
position  in  the  university  of  Berlin.  Here  he  de- 
veloped to  a  number  of  admiring  pupils  that  system 
which,  being  carried  into  the  province  of  theology, 
has  swept  away  a  historical  Christianity.  He  sup- 
plied from  his  armory  the  weapons  which  such 
daring  men  as  Strauss,  Fuerbach,  and  Bruno 
Bauer,  have  wielded  on  the  side  of  the  most  deter- 
mined unbelief  The  success  which  attended  his 
lectures  is   said    to   have   been   great,  and    their   in- 


in  the  seliool-room  of  that  good  Trhich  they  perhaps  receive  in  the 
catechumen  instruction.  The  teachers  of  the  higher  schools,  par- 
ticularly of  the  grammar-schools,  are,  for  the  most  part,  either 
addicted  to  pantheistic  philosophy,  or  altogether  indifferent  to 
religion,  and  fully  satisfied  with  the  ideas  of  their  Socrates  and 
Plato."— 7'/5€  Religions  Condition  of  Christendom,  p.  428-9.  (1852.) 


THE   SCHOOLS.  .  569 

flueuce  has  told  disastrously  on  the  German  churclies 
and  people. 

While  Berlin  was  thus  fostering  and  sending  forth 
a  pantheistic  philosophy,  Halle,  the  first  theological 
university  in  the  land,  was  occupied  by  neologieal 
professors.  Wegscheider  was  propounding  to  the 
future  ministers  of  the  church  the  lowest  ration- 
alism, and  Gesenius,  the  corypheus  of  Hebrew 
literature,  was  stripping  the  Old  Testament  of  its 
divine  glory.  ^  Heidelberg,  Gottingen,  Jena,  and 
other  universities,  were  lending  their  influence  to 
the  same  side  of  avowed  hostility  to  spiritual  Chris- 
tianity. The  celebrated  rationalistic  professor.  Dr. 
Paulus,  was  the  presiding  mind  over  the  first  of 
these  seats  of  learning.  A  large  number  of  the 
pulpits  throughout  the  land  were  occupied  by  his 
disciples.  From  the  chair  he  had  gone  on,  for 
years,  expounding  to  them,  or  rather  explaining 
away  the  marvellous  facts  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  Gospels,  in  his  hands,  lost  all  their  miraculous 
character,  and  the  mighty  works  of  the  great  teacher 

'  Dr.  Robinson,  who  attended  Gesenius'  lectures  in  the  winter  of 
1829-30,  sajs:  "Halle  is  the  favorite  resort  of  almost  all  the 
followers  of  rationalism,  who,  at  the  present  day,  constitute  a  very 
large  class  among  the  theological  students.  .  ,  Rationalism,  through 
the  exertions  of  Wegscheider,  the  countenance  of  Gesenius,  and 
the  indifference  of  Niemeyer,  had  obtained  firm  footing,  and  seduced 
the  understanding  of  the  great  body  of  the  students."  As  an  instance 
of  the  influence  of  Gesenius,  it  is  stated  that  when  he  began  his  course 
on  Genesis,  which  he  treated  as  a  mere  collection  of  myths  or  fables, 
he  had  only  fourteen  hearers,  but  at  the  period  referred  to  he  was 
addressing  five  hundred. — Robinson's  Concise  Vieio  of  the  German 
Universities,  ^-c,  p.  26,  36.  &c. 


570  THE    SCHOOLS. 

sent  from  God  were  accounted  for  on  purely  natural 
principles.  The  influence  of  this  one  professor, 
in  strengthening  and  extending  infidelity  within 
the  church  was  very  great.  He  is  reputed  to  have 
been  the  chief  agent  in  propagating  unbelief  through- 
out Baden  and  the  whole  palatinate  of  the  Rhine. 
A  number  of  such  men  of  learning  and  influence 
scattered  throughout  the  colleges  and  seminaries 
of  Germany,  and  employed  incessantly  in  instilling 
into  the  minds  of  the  future  teachers  of  the  people 
principles  involving  the  denial  of  all  that  is  super- 
natural in  Christianity,  must  have  contributed  much 
of  that  infidelity  which  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago 
deluged  the  land,  and  which  covers  much  of  the 
country  still. 

Berlin  and  Halle  have,  for  some  years,  possessed 
a  strong  evangelical  element,  counteractive  of  the 
low  rationalism  that  once  reigned  almost  alone. 
And  this  illustrates  the  powerful  influence  which 
'■^  professor  in  Germany  has  over  the  minds  of  his 
disciples,  and  the  great  responsibility  of  the  govern- 
ment in  filling  up  the  chairs.  Neander,---the  great, 
the  good,  the  loved  Neander — who  was  but  lately 
at  the  head  of  the  theological  faculty  in  Berlin, 
and  who  for  long  had  to  battle,  almost  single- 
handed,  with  a  dominant  rationalism,  has  been 
instrumental  in  raising  up  a  noble  band  of  men, 
valiant  in  the  good  fight,  who  with  himself,  have 
lifted  up  a  standard,  and  in  some  measure  driven 
back  the  flood  of  the  enemy.  Tholuck,  whose  hal- 
lowed  zeal    is    very   much   the    effect    of  Neander's 


THE    SCHOOLS. 


571 


influence,  is,  as  a  son,  doing  at  Halle,  what  his 
spiritual  father  had  long  been  doing  at  Berlin.  The 
influence  on  the  side  of  Scriptural  truth  of  such 
a  noble  corps  of  university  teachers  as  Neander, 
Hengstenberg,  Miiller,  Tholuck,  and  others,  has 
told,  and  is  telling,  powerfully  for  good  on  the 
churches  and  schools  of  Germany.  But  what  a  vast 
amount  of  low  rationalism  and  indiiferentism  have 
they  had  to  strive  against,  a  considerable  portion 
of  which  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  universities 
and  other  schools.^ 

Holland  also  has  been  renowned  for  its  seats 
of  learning.  Sir  W.  Hamilton  says  of  Leyden, 
the  oldest  of  them,  she  "has  been  surpassed  by 
many    other    universities,    in    the    emoluments    and 


'  Tholuck,  speaking  recently  of  the  universities,  said  :  "  If  we 
look  back  to  the  time  a  little  before  the  liberation  of  Germany  from 
the  French  yoke,  with  the  exception  of  Wurtemberg,  we  may  say 
that  there  were,  perhaps,  amongst  all  the  rest  of  the  teachers  of 
divinity,  not  more  than  three  or  four  that  may  be  called  evangelical. 
.  .  The  University  of  Halle — that  very  university  which  has,  in 
two  memorable  periods  of  our  ecclesiastical  history,  decided,  as  it 
were,  the  faith  of  the  Protestant  religion  in  our  country,  and  which 
numbered  during  a  long  period  no  less  than  900  pupils  of  divinity- 
lay  entirely  in  the  darkness  of  Socinianism  and  Unitarianism ;  and 
only  one  voice — it  was  a  timid  one,  but  yet  a  candid  one — was  lifted 
up  among  the  professors.  He  here  refers  to  Professor  Knapp,  who, 
in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  inquiring  about  the  state  of  vital  Christianity 
among  the  large  number  of  nearly  1000  divinity  students,  replied 
that  he  had  only  known  one  student  whom  he  considered  to  be  a 
real  Christian,  and  that  he  came  from  the  Moravians.  It  is  cheering 
to  hear  from  Tholuck,  who  twenty-four  years  before  had  to  tell 
nothing  but  sad  tidings  in  England,  that  a  glorious  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  Grerman  universities,  and  chiefly  in  Halle. — See 
"  Tlie  Religimis  Condition  of  Christendom^  p.  431-3  (1852). 


572  THE    SCHOOLS. 

in  the  number  of  her  chairs,  but  has  been  equalled 
by  none  in  the  average  eminence  of  her  professors. 
Of  these,  the  obscurer  names  would  be  luminaries 
in  many  other  schools;  and  from  the  circle  of  her 
twelve  professors,  and  in  an  existence  of  two  hundred 
years,  she  can  select  a.  more  numerous  company  of 
a  higher  erudition  than  can  be  found  among  the 
public  teachers  of  any  other  seminary  in  the  world.  "^ 
Affording,  as  Holland  once  did,  a  refuge  to  our  per- 
secuted nonconforming  forefathers,  its  schools  were 
much  resorted  to  by  many  of  our  English  and  Scottish 
students.  Leyden,  at  the  beginning  of  last  century, 
was  framed  as  a  school  of  Christian  theology.  John 
a  Mark  and  Wesselius,  whose  teaching  exerted  a 
hallowing  influence  on  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church, 
adorned  its  chairs.  But  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  it  happened  with  the  schools  of 
Holland  as  with  the  schools  of  Germany.  Ration- 
alism attained  to  the  dominion  within  their  walls. 
Neological  professors  sent  forth  a  deformed  and 
powerless  Christianity  from  the  chairs  of  Leyden, 
Groningen,  and*  Utrecht.  And  we  see  much  of 
their  influence  in  the  low  state  of  religion  through- 
out the  land,  and  in  the  torpor  that  has,  in  a  great 
measure,  crept  over  the  church.  There  are,  how- 
ever, hopeful  indications  of  a  re-awakening  of  the 
religious  life  in  Holland.  The  Gospel  is  progressing 
among  all  classes.  But  the  true  Protestant  faith 
has   still    to    struggle   with    an    infidel   theology   as 

^  Sir.  W.  Hamilton's  Discussions,  p.  364. 


THE   SCHOOLS.  573 

i^aught  in  tlie  universities,  especially  those  of  Groningen 
and  Leyden. 

Geneva,  one  of  the  lights  of  the  world,  shows 
also  the  powerful  agency  exerted  by  a  theological 
school.  Three  centuries  ago,  Calvin  founded  that 
celebrated  academy  in  which  he  and  Beza  taught, 
and  from  which  was  carried  that  sacred  fire  which 
is  now  burning  brightly  on  the  altars  of  other  lands. 
But  at  the  end  of  last  century,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  present,  when  the  adversaries  of  the  truth  almost 
everywhere  lengthened  their  cords  and  strengthened 
their  stakes,  a  unitarian  rationalism  enthroned  itself 
in  the  sacred  place,  and  held  dominion  over  the 
church  and  state  of  Geneva,  From  this  school, 
where  the  illustrious  reformer  set  up  the  lamp  of 
heavenly  truth  that  shone  to  the  ends  of  the  civilized 
world,  proceeded  pastors  and  teachers  to  fill  the 
pulpits  of  the  Genevese  church,  who  had  been 
taught  doctrines  opposed  alike  to  the  Reformation 
and  the  truth  of  Scripture.  D'Aubigne,  Gaussen, 
Malan,  and  other  noble  men  who  are  doing  valiantly 
in  the  war  against  pernicious  error  and  on  the  side 
of  Scriptural  Christianity,  sat  at  the  feet  of  a  divinity 
professor  who,  in  a  great  measure,  substituted  hea- 
then morality  for  Bible  truth,  and  preferred  Seneca 
and  Plato  as  oracles,  to  such  authorities  as  John 
the    Evangelist    and   the   Apostle    Paul.^       The    ex- 

'  M.  Bost,  who  ia  1817  became  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Dissenting  Church  then  formed,  thus  describes  the  course 
of  instruction  through  which  the  students  at  the  College  of  Geneva 
had  to  pass.     He  is  writing  in  1825  :  "  For  more  than  thirty  years. 


574  THE   SCHOOLS. 

cellent  Haldane,  on  his  arrival  in  Geneva  in  the 
year  1816,  found  the  students  deeply  sunk  in  So- 
cinian  theology ;  and  among  them  were  such  men  as 
D'Aubigne  and  Adolph  Monod,  whom  he  was  in- 
strumental in  leading  to  the  truth.  The  city  of 
Calvin  has  had  for  some  years  in  such  men  as  the 
author  of  the  History  of  the  Eeformation,  and  the 
author  of  Theopneustia,  a  theological  school  worthy 
of  the  great  reformer,  and  second  to  none  in  the 
world  for  talent  and  piety.  It  is  there,  as  Dr. 
Cheever  remarks,  "that  D'Aubigne  first  utters  some 
of  those  voices  of  truth  and  freedom — those  declar- 
ations of  independence  which  afterwards  go  echoing 
through  the  world. "^     These  few,  but   noble-spirited 


the  ministers  who  have  gone  out  of  our  schools  of  theology  to  serve 
either  the  churches  of  our  own  land,  or  those  of  France  and  other 
foreign  countries,  have  not  received  07ie  single  lecture  on  the  truths 
which  exclusively-  belong  to  revelation,  such  as  the  redemption  of 
mankind,  by  the  death  of  Christ,  the  justification  of  the  sinner  by 
faith,  the  corruption  of  our  nature,  the  divinity  of  our  Saviour,  &c. 
In  theology  we  were  taught  notliing  but  what  are  called  the  dogmas 
of  natural  religion.  The  extent  to  which  this  practical  incredulity 
was  carried,  is  clear  from  the  fact,  elsewhere  unheard  of,  I  suspect, 
in  the  annals  of  the  Protestant  churches — that  excepting  for  a  lecture 
in  the  Hebrew  language,  when  the  Bible  was  used  simply  as  a 
Hebrew  book,  and  not  for  anything  which  it  contained,  the  word 
of  God  was  never  used  throughout  our  course;  in  particular,  the 
^Q.\^  Testament  never  appeared  either  as  a  language-book,  or  for 
any  other  purpose ;  there  was  no  need  of  the  New  Testament  what- 
ever, in  order  to  complete  our  four  years'  course  in  theology;  in  other 
words,  that  book,  especially  in  the  original,  was  not  at  all  among  the 
number  of  books  required  in  order  to  accomplish  the  career  of  our 
studies  for  the  sacred  ministry." — Sec  Br.  Alexander's  Switzerland 
(ind  t.lie  Swiss  Churches,  p.  194. 
'   Cbcever's  Wanderings,  p.  34. 


THE    SCHOOLS.  575 

and  truly  great  reformers  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
placed  as  they  are  between  unitarian  rationalism 
on  the  one  hand  and  despotic  Jesuitism  on  the 
other,  are  doing  good  service,  by  means  of  their 
theological  institute,  to  Christ's  cause  in  Geneva 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  Continent.  But,  as  re- 
gards numerical  strength,  they  are  like  Gideon 
and  his  three  hundred  men  opposed  to  the  Midian- 
ites.  The  Lord,  however,  is  with  them,  and  is 
saying  unto  them,  "Go  in  this  your  might,  and  ye 
shall  save  Israel  from  the  hand  of  the  Midianites: 
have  not  I  sent  you?"  This  relieves  the  gloom, 
but  it  is  still  dense  and  disastrous.  Socinianism, 
having  long  held  its  place  in  the  Academy  and 
the  Church,  and  being  supported  by  the  secular 
arm,  has  left  the  way  open  for  a  reviving  Romanism, 
or  for  the  doctrines  of  Strauss.  It  is  from  this 
rationalistic  school  too,  be  it  observed,  that  the 
French  Protestant  churches  have  chiefly  derived 
those  pastors  who  must  be  numbered  among  the 
rationalists  and  latitudinarians  whose  influence  is 
adverse  to  spiritual  Christianity.  Geneva  is  justly 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  centres  of 
influence  for  extending  Christianity  on  the  Continent. 
But  if  we  look  to  the  New  Academy  as  an  efl'ective 
agency  in  diffusing  around  and  abroad  the  light  of  the 
Gospel,  we  must  reckon  the  old  as  having  exerted  no 
inconsiderable  power  on  the  side  of  rationalism  and 
infidelity. 

Our  survey  of  the  schools,  in  so  far  as  they  have 
exerted  an  influence  hostile  to  the  Gospel  and  favor 


576  THE  scnooLS. 

able  td  infidelity,  has  been  far  from  complete.  But  it 
lias  been  extensive  enough  to  let  us  see  that  they 
have  been,  and  in  many  instances  are,  no  mea  "^ 
agencies  in  forming  and  disseminating  those  many 
shaped  systems  of  unbelief  which,  during  the  last 
sixty  years,  or  more,  have  been  rampant  in  many 
lands.  If  the  fountains  are  polluted  what  must  be 
the  streams?  And  how  great  the  responsibility  of 
governments  in  appointing  men  to  chairs  in  the 
national  schools,  who,  by  their  teaching,  infuse  prin- 
ciples into  the  minds  of  youth,  that  are  destructive  at 
once  of  loyalty  to  the  powers  on  earth  and  of  devotion 
to  the  God  of  heaven.  Were  all  the  seats  of  learn- 
ing in  which  the  human  sciences  are  taught,  instru- 
mental in  guiding  the  minds  of  their  disciples  aright, 
instead  of,  as  has  often  been  the  case,  grievously  per- 
verting them — and  were  the  schools  which  are  es- 
pecially designed  for  sacred  instruction,  made  reservoirs 
of  the  pure  river  of  the  water  of  life — what  a  mighty 
agency  for  good  would  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
world.  Many  would  then  run  to  and  fro,  and,  in 
the  best  sense  of  the. expression,  knowledge  would  be 
increased.  "  A  Christianized  university,  in  respect 
of  its  professorships,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  would  be 
to  me  a  mightier  accession  than  a  Christianized 
country  in  respect  of  its  parishes.  And  should  there 
be  a  fountain  out  of  which  there  emanated  a  thousand 
rills,  it  would  be  to  the  source  that  I  should  carry  the 
salt  of  purification,  and  not  to  any  of  the  streams  which 
flow  from  it."^ 

'  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  ii.,  p.  376. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    PULPIT. 

The  pulpit  no  bad  criterion — Divides  now  its  former  influence  with 
the  Press — Can  never  be  superseded — Lines  of  Cowper — Exten- 
sively employed  on  the  side  of  evil — Deplorable  state  of  the  Ger- 
man churches — Testimonies  of  Drs.  Wichern  and  Krummacher 
— Dishonesty  of  the  rationalistic  preachers — Fault  of  the  con- 
sistories— Evil  of  uniting  churches  on  a  loose  doctrinal  basis — 
Rationalism  in  the  Protestant  pulpits  of  Hungary  —  National 
Church  of  Geneva — State  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Holland — A 
glance  at  Belgium — Pulpit  agency  in  France — Ministering  to  old 
superstitions  or  to  infidelity — The  Abbe  Lacordaire — Rationalism 
in  the  French  Protestant  church — Causes  of  this — State  of  the 
British  Pulpit — Much  that  is  cheering — Ruinous  influence  of  mere 
moral  preaching  in  the  Establishment — Tractarianism  the  growing 
evil — Concluding  Remark. 

The  state  of  the  pulpit  among  any  people  is,  gener- 
ally, no  bad  criterion  of  the  state  of  religion  itself 
It  does  not  indeed  indicate,  as  infallibly  as  the  ther- 
mometer, or  the  water-mark,  the  temperature  of  the 
surrounding  atmosphere,  or  the  height  to  which  the 
river  of  the  water  of  life  has  risen.  In  some  places 
there  may  be  much  light  and  heat  in  the  pulpit, 
while  the  people  to  a  considerable  extent  may  be 
frigid  and  sitting  in  darkness.  In  other  places,  on 
the  contrary,  there  may  be  much  more  vital  godlines.^ 
among  the  people  than  among  their  teachers ;   just  a^ 

37 


578  THE    PULPIT. 

the  lowlands  may  be  bathed  in  sun-light  while  the 
uplands  are  shrouded  in  mists.  But  these  cases  are 
like  exceptions  to  a  general  rule.  It  commonly  hap- 
pens that  where  a  pulpit  agency  exists  in  any  consider- 
able extent,  as  in  European  countries,  it  exerts  no 
little  influence  on  the  faith  and  morals  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  continual  droppings  from  this  quarter  make 
an  impression  for  good  or  evil,  on  the  hearts  of  the 
millions  that  come  under  them. 

The  pulpit,  at  one  time,  was  almost  the  only  means 
of  imparting  instruction  to  the  people.  Books  existed 
only  in  manuscript,  and  these  were  scarcely  known 
beyond  the  walls  of  monasteries  and  the  libraries  of 
the  learned.  Down  to  the  end  of  the  middle  ages, 
the  oral  teacher  had  nothing  deserving  the  name  of 
a  competitor.  During  much  of  that  period,  however, 
the  power  of  the  pulpit  was  in  a  great  measure  dor- 
mant, owing  to  the  corruptions  of  the  church  and  the 
indolence  of  the  clergy,  xit  the  Eeformation  it  awoke ; 
and,  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet  startled  the  nations. 
And  from  that  time  onward  to  the  present,  the  pulpit, 
as  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Christian  church,  has 
wielded  an  extensive  influence  over  the  minds  of  men. 
Ever  since  the  invention  of  printing,  it  has  had  a 
rival  in  the  press.  The  rivalry,  in  a  great  measure 
and  for  long,  has  been  a  salutary  one.  Both  agencies 
have  done  mighty  service  to  the  world,  in  disseminat- 
ing that  truth  wherewith  men  are  made  free.  The 
press,  within  a  few  years,  owing  to  the  removal  of  re- 
strictions that  crippled  its  energies,  has  made  rapid 
strides,  and   is,  at  the  present  moment,  perhaps  the 


THE    PULPIT.  579 

most  powerful  agent  for  good  or  evil  tliat  is  brought 
to  bear  on  the  minds  of  men.  The  pulpit,  it  cannot 
be  denied,  has  lost  something  of  its  influence.  At 
least  as  an  agent  in  moulding  and  controlling  the 
minds  of  the  people,  it  must  divide,  with  the  advanc- 
ing press,  the  influence  which  it  once  exerted  alone. 
But  the  pulpit  can  never  be  superseded.  It  is  pre- 
eminently heaven's  instrumentality  in  operating  on 
men's  minds  and  hearts.  "It  hath  pleased  God  by 
the  foolishness  of  preaching,"  or  by  what  worldly  men 
count  foolishness,  "to  save  them  that  believe."  Relig- 
ious truth  has  hitherto  been  propagated  mainly  by  a 
pulpit  agency,  and  so  will  it  continue  to  be.  By  this 
the  battles  of  the  Lord  must  be  fought,  darkness  and 
error  driven  back,  and  the  'kingdom  not  of  this 
world'  extended.  Men,  in  general,  are  much  more 
influenced  by  what  they  hear  than  by  what  they  read. 
The  living  voice  of  the  preacher  is  better  fitted  to 
excite  attention  to  divine  things,  to  awaken  an  in- 
terest in  them,  and  to  impress  them  on  the  mind, 
than  the  press. 

"  the  pulpit  (in  the  sober  use 


Of  its  legitimate,  peculiar  powers) 

Must  stand  acknowledged,  while  the  world  shall  stand, 

The  most  important  and  effectual  guard, 

Support,  and  ornament  of  virtue's  cause. 

There  stands  the  messenger  of  truth  :  there  stands 

The  legate  of  the  skies  ! — His  theme  divine, 

His  office  sacred,  his  credentials  clear. 

By  him  the  violated  law  speaks  out 

Its  thunders  ;  and  by  him,  in  strains  as  sweet 

As  angels  use,  the  gospel  whispers  peace. 

He  stablishes  the  strong,  restores  the  weak, 


680  THE    PULPIT. 

Reclaims  the  wanderer,  binds  the  broken  heart, 

And,  arm'd  himself  in  panoply  complete 

Of  heavenly  temper,  furnishes  with  arms 

Bright  as  his  own,  and  trains,  by  every  rule 

Of  holy  discipline,  to  glorious  war, 

The  sacramental  host  of  God's  elect ! 

Are  all  such  teachers? — would  to  heaven  all  were !'" 

The  poet  drew  from  life.  It  was  no  mere  fanciful 
sketch — a  thing  to  be  desired,  but  seldom  or  never 
realized.  Many  a  hamlet  and  town  throughout  our 
country  and  other  lands,  can  tell  of  such  a  "messen- 
ger of  truth,"  such  a  "  legate  of  the  skies."  But  all 
are  not  "  such  teachers."  "  Would  to  heaven  all  were !" 
— How  very  different  would  be  the  state  of  the  church 
and  the  world ! 

The  pulpit,  notwithanding  its  high  sacredness,  is 
extensively  employed,  in  many  lands,  on  the  side  of 
evil.  All  the  forms  of  infidelity,  from  the  grossest 
pantheism  to  the  most  lifeless  formalism,  have  their 
abettors  in  the  pulpit.  The  unbelief  of  the  schools 
works  chiefly,  by  this  agency,  on  the  minds  of  the 
people.  If  the  seats  of  learning,  where  the  future 
ministers  of  the  church  are  reared,  be  occupied  by 
infidel  teachers,  it  will  generally  happen  that  the 
pulpits  are  much  on  the  side  of  infidelity.  Conti- 
nental Europe,  during  the  last  half  century  and  more, 
affords  sad  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this.  And  not- 
withstanding so  much  of  the  pulpit  power  in  our  own 
land  is  on  the  side  of  scriptural  truth,  we  see  that  it 
is  also  much  exerted  on  behalf  of  pernicious  error. 

Look  at  Germany.     There   the  power   of  the  pul- 

*  Cowper's  Task. 


THE    PULPIT.  581 

pit  is  seen  to  preponderate  mightily  on  the  side  of 
infidelity.  Nothing  can  be  more  deplorable  than 
the  state  of  the  German  churches.  Rationalism  of 
every  shape  sits  enthroned  in  the  holy  place.  It  is, 
or  has  been,  deeply  rooted  in  the  universities,  in  the 
lower  schools,  and  in  the  pulpits.  Saxony,  the  cradle 
of  the  Reformation,  and  the  country  of  Luther,  has 
been  its  stronghold.  Most  of  the  old  pastors  have 
sat  at  the  feet  of  the  rationalist  chief  Wegscheider, 
and  are  faithful  to  his  principles;  while  multitudes 
of  the  younger,  who  have  not  come  under  the  benign 
influence  of  such  men  as  Tholuck  and  Miiller,  belons: 
to  the  extreme  left  of  the  Hegelian  school,  and  ac- 
knowledge as  their  guides,  Strauss,  Bruno  Bauer, 
and  such  like.  The  light  shines  amid  the  darkness, 
but  it  is  hated.  A  fervid  evangelism  is  to  be  found 
bearing  witness  against  the  low  rationalism  that  has 
usurped  its  place.  But  pietism  bears  the  obloquy 
that  once  belonged,  in  our  own  countrj^,  to  Puritanism 
and  Methodism.  The  German  churches,  with  some 
illustrious  exceptions,  present,  on  a  large  scale,  the 
spectacle  of  men  sheltered  under  an  evangelical  creed, 
but  throwing  out  doctrines  that  give  the  lie  to  it ;  men 
holding  the  Bible  in  their  hand  as  their  text-book, 
who  exalt  their  fallible  reason  above  its  true  sayings ; 
men  who  rob  Christ  of  his  glory  and  his  word  of  its 
supreme  authority;  men  who  eat  the  church's  bread 
and  lift  up  the  heel  against  her.  By  such  a  pulpit 
agency  as  this,  exerted  on  the  side  to  which  lean  the 
depraved  tendencies  of  human  nature,  a  pantheistic 
and  rationalistic  creed  has  made  wide  conquests  over 


582  THE    PULPIT. 

a  Scriptural  Christianity,  among  thousands  and   ieus 
of  thousands  of  all  classes  in  Germany. 

It  was  stated,  a  very  few  years  ago,  that  at  Dresden, 
in   the   chapel   of    whose    castle   the    great   reformer 
preached  the  doctrines  of  salvation,  only  one  of  the 
many  Lutheran  pulpits  sounded  forth  the  gospel  of 
grace.     In   such   parts   as   Baden,    Rhenish   Bavaria, 
and  Hesse  Darmstadt,  the  rationalistic  ministers  wcr*^ 
said  to  preponderate  over  the  evangelical  in  the  pro- 
portion of  ten  to  one.^     The  adage,  like  priest,  like 
people,  is  in  such  places  strongly  exemplified.     Their 
religious  principles  have  long  been  undermined  by  a 
systematic  course  of  rationalistic  preaching  from  the 
pulpit.     Infidelity    and    indifferentism,    especially    in 
large  towns,  characterize  to  a  fearful  extent  all  classes 
from   the   highest   to   the   lowest.     Dr.    Krummacher 
stated,    very   lately,    that   in   Berlin,    which   contains 
more  than  400,000  persons,  not  more  than  one  twen- 
tieth visit  the  house  of  God.     The  remainder,  to  all 
appearance,  being  the  disciples  of  a  vulgar  rationalism. 
There  are  other  parts,  it  is  true,  such  as  Wurtemberg, 
Old  Bavaria,  Westphalia,   and  Pomerania,  where  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation  have  some  hold  of  the 
minds  of  the  people,  and  where  believing  preachers 
are  to  be  found.     Dr.  Wichern,  who  is  full  of  hope  in 
reference  to  Germany,  tells  of  a  large  province  con- 
taining three  hundred  clergymen,  in  which  evangeli- 
cal doctrine  was  not  preached  twenty-five  years  ago  by 
more  than  one  or  two  of  them,  but  where  now  two 
hundred    believing,    faithful   men   are   holding   forth 

'  Evangelical  Christendom,  Dec.  1849. 


THE    PULPIT.  583 

the  word  of  life.  But,  after  reckoning  up  all  that 
can  be  claimed  for  the  pure  Gospel,  a  vast  pre- 
ponderance of  discipleship  and  pulpit  agency  in  the 
German  Fatherland,  is  on  the  side  that  is  adverse  to 
Scripture  Christianity.  "  In  short,  a  popular  philoso- 
phic inundation  of  the  most  shallow  kind,  which  bears 
nothing  of  true  Christianity  but  the  assumed  name, 
covers  up  to  this  day  an  immeasurable  extent  of  the 
ground  of  the  German  church."^ 

No  more  disastrous  influence  can  come  upon  a 
church,  and,  through  the  church,  upon  a  country, 
than  to  admit  unconverted  and  unbelieving  men  into 
her  pulpits.  It  is  like  allowing  traitors  to  enter  the 
army,  thieves  to  preside  at  the  treasury,  and  states- 
men, who  are  bribed  by  foreign  gold,  to  guide  the 
destinies  of  a  nation.  The  pitiful  meanness  and 
base  hypocrisy  of  the  men  who  cling  to  the  emolu- 
aaents  of  a  church,  while  their  principles  are  glaringly 
opposed  to  its  creed  and  destructive  of  its  influence, 
cannot  be  too  severely  reprobated.  How  would  it 
have  incurred  the  woful  denunciations  of  Him  who, 
though  meek  and  lowly,  frowned  upon  the  false  and 
deluding  guides  of  the  people.  Strauss,  at  the  end 
Df  his  Leben  Jesu,  after  having  reduced  Christianity  to 
-I  system  of  myths,  and  thereby  destroyed  its  histori- 
cal validity,  claims  for  himself,  and  those  who  think 
with  him,  the  right  of  ministering  at  the  altar,  and 
preaching  the  Gospel,  that  is,  the  right  of  being  a 
Christian  and  an  infidel  at  the  same  time.  The 
dishonesty  with  which  he  handle's  the  evangelical 
'  The  Religious  Condition  of  Christendom,  (1852.)  p.  425. 


584  THE    PULPIT. 

histories,  forbid  us  to  expect  over  strict  morality  in 
discussing  such  questions.  May  not  the  language 
which  the  God  of  truth  addresses  to  certain  other 
personages,  be  addressed  to  such  aspirants  after  tvv'o 
incompatible  chararacters.  "  What  hast  thou  to  do  to 
declare  my  statutes,  or  that  thou  shouldest  take  my 
covenant  in  thy  mouth  ?  Seeing  thou  hatest  instruc- 
tion, and  castest  my  words  behind  thee."^ 

But  our  condemnation  must  be  pronounced,  also, 
on  the  authorities  with  whom  lies  the  responsibility 
of  admitting  infidel  teachers  into  the  pulpits  of  the 
church.  The  Protestant  church  in  Germany,  as  is 
well  known,  is  governed  by  consistories  which  are 
composed  partly  of  ecclesiastical  and  partly  of  lay- 
members.     With  them,  generally,  rests  the  power  of 


'  Dr.  Beard  says :  '•  Immediately  on  the  appearance,  iu  June, 
1835,  of  the  first  part  of  his  '  Life  of  Jesus,'  Strauss  received  from 
the  Wurtemberg  Council  of  Education  a  formal  inquiry  whether  he 
considered  a  position  in  an  institution,  designed  to  prepare  young 
men  for  the  Christian  ministry,  tenable  by  one  who  had  put  forth 
such  views  as  he  had  published  in  his  book.  In  answer,  Strauss 
endeavored  to  show,  that  his  opinions  did  not  disqualify  him  for 
holding  an  oflfice  in  the  Church,  since  the  clergyman  conceived  that 
as  an  idea  which  the  people  assumed  as  history,  and  that  the  two 
must  be  brought  into  accordance."  In  the  last  chapter  of  the  Lcben 
Jesu,  Strauss  presents  us  with  a  similar  piece  of  precious  morality. 
He  says :  "  He  who  does  not  believe  the  Gospel  history  may 
still  recognize  the  religious  influence,  as  well  as  he  who  receives 
the  history;  it  is  only  a  difference  of  form,  by  which  the  sub- 
stance remains  unaffected.  Wherefore  it  is  discourteous  to  impute 
a  lie  to  a  minister  who  preaches  on  the  resurrection  of  Christ ; 
and,  while  he  does  not  think  this  a  reality  as  an  individual,  sen- 
sible fact,  yet  holds  for  true  the  spectacle  of  the  living  process  of  the 
spirit  which  lies  therein." — Dr.  Beard's  "  Stratcss,  Hegel,  and  their 
Ojmiions,'"  pp.  16,23. 


THE    PULPIT.  585 

deciding  on  the  election  of  pastors,  subject  indeed  to 
the  sanction  of  the  supreme  civil  power.  In  some 
parts,  as  in  Prussia  and  Bavaria,  these  bodies  are  for 
the  most  part  composed  of  men  of  evangelical  prin- 
ciples; but  their  influence  is  not  unfrequently  coun 
teracted  by  the  dominant  ungodliness  of  the  people, 
and  the  indifferentism  of  the  members  of  the  govern- 
ment. In  other  places  again,  as  in  the  Palatinate, 
those  who  have  the  administration  of  church  affairs, 
instead  of  endeavoring  to  check  the  current  of  irre- 
ligion,  would  let  it  flow  and  float  on  the  bosom  of  it. 
While  in  other  parts,  among  which  are  especially  signi- 
fied the  smaller  Saxon  Principalities,  the  consistories 
are,  without  any  other  spot  or  wrinkle,  grossly  ration- 
alistic in  their  character.-^ 

It  deserves  notice  also,  as  bearing  upon,  and  in 
some  measure  accounting  for  the  infidelity  of  the  pul- 
pits, that  in  Germany  there  has  been  cherished,  on  the 
part  of  the  church  rulers  at  least,  a  strong  desire  of 
mere  external  unity.  The  late  king  of  Prussia  aimed 
at  uniting  all  the  Protestant  churches.  The  Augsburg 
and  the  Genevan  confessions  were  amalgamated,  about 
thirty  years  ago,  in  Prussia,  in  Rhenish  Bavaria,  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  land ;  and  out  of  the  amalgama- 
tion, arose  the  United,  or,  as  it  is  not  very  correctly 
called,  the  Evangelical  church.  But  the  doctrinal 
basis,  under  this  state  dictatorship,  was  very  loosely 
defined;  and  hence,  amid  an  external  uniformity, 
exists  much  doctrinal  dissension.  The  coat  is  one, 
but  it  is  made  up  of  many  colors.  The  right  of 
'  Evangelical  Christendom,  vol.  iii.,  p.  362. 


586  THE    rULPIT. 

private  judgmeDt  in  interpreting  the  Lutheran  sym- 
bols, has  been  tolerated  so  far  as  to  let  men  of  the 
lowest  rationalistic  views  as  well  as  the  most  orthodox 
dwell  under  the  shadow  of  the  same  church.  A 
loose  rule  of  faith,  a  wavering  doctrinal  standard,  and 
a  latitudinarian  interpretation,  have  thus  opened  a 
door  for  the  admission  of  pastors  and  teachers  whose 
influence  is  exerted  against  Scriptural  Christianity. 
Be  the  governors  of  the  church,  civil  or  ecclesiastical, 
or  both — be  they  independent  of  the  state  or  con- 
nected with  it,  great  responsibility  lies  upon  them  in 
admitting,  directly  or  indirectly,  unconverted  and  infi- 
del men  into  the  pulpit  from  which  should  sound  forth 
the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  And  this  shows  the 
importance  of  no  man,  or  body  of  men,  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  government  of  Christ's  house, 
but  those  who  are  true  members  of  the  household  of 
faith.  ^ 


'  Dr.  Robinson,  speaking  of  the  examinations  to  -wliich  candidates 
for  the  pastoral  ofl&ce  in  Germany  are  subjected — examinations  which 
in  point  of  scholarship  are  very  testing,  says:  "In  these  examina 
tious,  rigorous  and  decisive  as  they  are,  there  is  one  omission  which 
strikes  our  feelings  with  surprise  and  grief.  By  this  door  enter  all 
the  pastors  and  teachers  of  the  church ;  of  that  church,  the  object  of 
which  is  to  keep  alive  the  pure  and  holy  flame  of  the  Christian  re. 
ligion,  and  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  Grod's  kingdom  upon  earth. 
But  to  those  thus  entering  the  question  is  never  put,  whether  they 
have  any  regard  for  this  kingdom  of  God.  The  church,  alas  !  is  no 
longer  at  her  own  disposal,  and  cannot  prove  "  the  spirits  of  her 
prophets,  whether  they  be  of  God."  She  is  but  the  slave  of  civil 
power ;  and  all  that  she  is  at  liberty  to  ask  or  know  is,  whether 
her  prophets  are  regularly  appointed  by  the  king  and  his  ministers. 
Not  one  question  is  ever  asked  as  to  their  belief  in  a  revelation,  nor 
as  to  t'leir  personal  motives  in  thus  undertaking  to  be  the  arabassa- 


THE    PULPIT.  587 

We  speak  not  of  Popish  Austria,  whose  pulpit 
agency,  like  that  of  all  countries  enslaved  by  Rome, 
is  on  the  side  of  the  corruptions  of  Christianity,  and 
thus  hostile  to  the  pure  Gospel  of  Christ.  But  we 
advert  to  Hungary,  that  interesting  land  under  Aus- 
trian rule,  whose  political  struggles  and  religious  con- 
dition have,  of  late  years,  drawn  forth  the  sympathies 
of  the  lovers  of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  The 
Hungarian  protestant  church  flourished  both  in  nu- 
merical and  spiritual  vigor  for  some  time  after  the 
Reformation,  and  her  pulpit  agency  was  a  blessing  to 
the  country.  But  the  persecutions  of  last  century, 
and  the  rationalism  of  later  times,  have  corrupted 
her  principles  and  prostrated  her  strength.  This  pro- 
testant church  reckons  up  about  four  millions  of 
members  at  the  present  day.  Almost  all  their  minis- 
ters, however,  are  rationalists,  having  been  educated  in 
rationalistic  academies,  not  in  Hungary,  but  in  other 
parts  of  the  Continent.  The  consequence  of  infi- 
delity and  lukewarmness  among  the  ministers,  has 
been  infidelity  and  a  wide-spread  degeneracy  among 
the  flocks.  The  pulpit  agency  which  was  once  on 
the  side  of  the  pure  Christian  faith,  has  been  largely 
employed  on  the  side  of  unbelief.  A  few  faithful 
men  in   Hungary  are  endeavoring   to   build   up   the 

dors  of  God  to  man.  When  the  shepherds  are  thus  chosen  "without 
any  reference  to  their  fidelity,  are  we  to  wonder  that  the  flock  should 
go  astray,  and  become  widely  scattered  ?" — Robi7ison''s  Concise  Views 
of  the  German  Universities,  Sfc,  p.  97. 

The  above,  written  about  twenty  years  ago,  if  not  an  exact  descrip- 
tion of  matters,  still  shows,  at  least,  on  what  side  the  pulpit  agency 
of  Germany  has  for  long  been  exerted. 


588  THE    PULPIT. 

walls  of  their  Jerusalem,  and  bring  tlie  churcli  back  to 
her  first  love.  Christian  education  is  occupying  their 
attention.  They  are  aiming  at  undoing  the  evils  of 
neological  training  received  from  abroad,  by  establish- 
ing a  sound  theological  faculty  among  themselves. 
And  from  this  evangelical  school,  in  the  establishment 
and  support  of  which  they  need  Christian  help,  they 
design  to  supply  faithful  ministers  to  the  protestant 
church  of  Hungary  and  Austria.^ 

There  are  other  parts  of  the  Continent  where  the 
agency  of  the  pulpit  is  not  less  strongly  exerted  on 
the  side  of  infidelity,  and  where  the  powers  that  be 
give  that  evil  agency  their  support.  Look,  for  exam- 
ple, at  Sicitzerland.  In  Geneva,  not  to  mention 
other  parts  where  socinianism  and  neologianism  have 
extensively  prevailed,  a  rationalistic  unitarianism, 
for  nearly  a  century,  has  had  possession  of  the 
national  pulpits.  It  is  well  known  that  the  great 
chiefs  of  the  French  infidelity  hailed  the  Genevese 
pastors  as  allies  in  the  work  of  demolishing  every- 
thing peculiarly  Christian.  D'Alembert,  in  the  article 
Geneva^  in  the  French  Encyclojpedie^  says,  "all  the 
religion  that  many  of  the  ministers  of  Geneva  have 
is  a  complete  socinianism,  rejecting  everything  called 
mystery,  and  supposing  that  the  first  principle  of  a 
true  religion  is  to  propose  nothing  to  be  received 
as  a  matter  of  faith  which  strikes  against  reason."^ 
And  it  was  significant  of  the  leanings  of  the  pastors, 
that  some  of  the  most  intellectual  among  them  were 

'  See  Evang.  Christendom,  vol.  iv.,  p.  334,  and  vol.  v.,  p.  179. 
Dr.  Smith's  Scripture  Testimony,  vol.  i.,  p.  134. 


THE    PULPIT, 


admiring  visitors  of  Voltaire  during  his  residence  at 
Ferney.  The  departure  of  the  Genevese  church  from 
the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  occupancy 
of  her  pulpits  by  socinian  and  deistical  teachers,  are 
considered  to  have  had  no  small  share  in  bringing  in 
that  flood  of  ungodliness  and  immorality  which,  as  in 
the  case  of  France,  at  last  deluged  the  country. 

Previous  to  the  revolution  of  1846,  which  deprived 
the  church  of  her  constitution,  as  she  had  formerly 
been  deprived  of  her  evangelical  doctrine,  the  right 
of  nomination  to  all  the  ecclesiastical  vacancies  in 
the  canton,  resided  with  the  "  Company  of  Pastors." 
And  it  is  an  indisputable  fact  that  they  chose  men  of 
rationalistic  principles.  Malan,  Gaussen,  D'Aubigne, 
and  others  of  that  noble  band,  who,  on  being  awakened 
themselves,  summoned  the  Genevese  to  the  faith  and 
hope  of  the  gospel,  were  censured  and  severely 
treated  for  so  doing  by  the  company  referred  to. 
Cheever,  in  his  delightful  "Wanderings,"  tells  us 
that  Gaussen  mentioned,  what  to  him  was  a  startling 
fact,  that  out  of  forty  pastors  in  the  national  church, 
only  three  were  regarded  as  evangelical.  By  the  new 
constitution  given  to  Geneva,  in  May  1847,  an  infidel 
radicalism  has  stretched  its  hand  over  the  church. 
All  opinions  are  tolerated  within  her  pale,  and  may 
have  their  representatives  in  her  pulpits ;  and  though, 
through  this  opened  door,  evangelical  doctrines  may 
enter,  as  well  as  the  most  rationalistic,  yet  the  license 
must  be  more  favorable  to  the  latter  than  to  the 
former.      Every  protestant  citizen  who  has   reached 


590  THE    PULPIT. 

the  a"-e  of  twenty-one,  be  lie  Christian  or  infidel,  is 
by  law  a  member  of  the  church,  and  has  a  right  to 
all  her  privileges.  The  i^ulpit  and  the  pew,  in  the 
hands  of  an  infidel  government,  to  which  the  church 
is  subjected,  are  thus  made  agents  in  strengthening 
and  propagating  socinian  and  rationalistic  principles. 
"Calvin's  vessel,"  remarks  D'Aubigne,  "which  for  a 
century  past  lay  half-sunken  in  the  waters,  has  now 
suddenly  been  engulfed." 

If  we  cast  our  eye  upon  Hollaiid^  we  see  that  ration- 
alism, as  in  the  Protestant  churches  of  Germany, 
there  wields,  in  a  great  measure,  the  pulpit  agency 
of  the  Reformed  Church.  Those  doctrines  which 
form  the  very  marrow  of  the  Christian  creed,  such  as 
the  trinity,  the  true  and  proper  divinity  of  Christ, 
and  his  atonement  for  human  salvation,  are  very 
generally  repudiated  by  the  teachers  of  the  people. 
The  infidelity  of  the  schools  is  boldly  enunciated 
from  the  pulpit.  A  pure  fervid  evangelism,  as  held 
forth  by  the  faithful  in  the  land,  is  frowned  upon  by 
those  who  have  been  ordained  to  preach  it.  The 
laity  are  even  said  to  contrast  favorably  with  the 
clergy:  the  departure  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformation  being  much  more  general  among  the 
latter  than  among  the  former.  The  Dutch  people 
have  still,  to  some  extent,  a  love  for  the  doctrines  of 
the  cross,  and  that  love  is  increasing  both  among 
the  higher  and  lower  classes  of  society.  Another 
favorable  sign  is  that  the  younger  ministers  who  are 
coming  forth  to  occupy  the  pulpits,  evince  in  a  great 


THE   PULPIT.  591 

measure,  an  attaclinient  to  the  old  Gospel  trutli. 
But,  (as  one  who  knows  the  Netherlands,  and  is 
well  remembered  there,  has  said,)  the  great  body  of 
the  clergy  represented  by  the  National  Synod  seem 
to  be  still  decidedly  unfavorable  to  pure  evangelical 
religion.^ 

Belgium^  the  other  division  of  the  Netherlands, 
with  the  exception  of  its  small  number  of  Protestant 
Evangelical  churches,  and  notwithstanding  its  free 
constitution,  lies  under  the  blighting  influence  of 
Popery.  The  pulpit  agency,  as  in  Italy  and  Spain, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  employed,  advocates  man's  religion, 
not  God's.  It  is  on  the  side  of  superstition  and 
materialism,  and  adverse  to  spiritual  Christianity. 
There  are  good  grounds  for  believing  that  not  a  few 
of  the  priests,  disgusted  with  the  Romish  system,  have 
become  deists  or  infidels,  but  cling  to  the  priest's 
of&ce  for  the  sake  of  bread.  "  One  may  attend 
whole  years  on  the  prayers  and  sermons  without  ever 
hearing  it  proclaimed,  'that  whoso  believeth  on  the 
Son  hath  eternal  life;'  or  having  those  words  of  the 
apostle  repeated  and  developed,  '  for  by  grace  are  ye 
saved  through  faith ;  and  that  not  of  yourselves  :  it  is 
the  gift  of  God:  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should 
boast,  for  we  are  his  workmanship,  created  in 
Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works.  But  you  will  hear 
sermons  enough  on  the  authority  of  the  Church,  the 
excellence    of  the   priesthood,  the   mediation  of  the 

'  The  Picligious  Condition  of  Christendoii],  p.  409  ;  and  Evangelicfil 
Christeudom,  vol.  vii.,  p.  47. 


592  THE    PULPIT. 

Virgin,  the  intercession  of  saints,  purgatory,  con- 
fession, works  of  satisfaction,  and  indulgences,'^^  all 
of  which  are  destructive  of  the  authority  of  God's 
word  and  of  the  perfection  of  Christ's  work. 

If  we  turn  to  France,  we  see  that,  with  a  few  bril- 
liant exceptions,  all  the  existing  pulpit  agency  is 
on  the  side  of  materialism,  or  rationalism,  or  a  grossly 
corrupted  Christianity.  France,  like  every  other 
Roman  Catholic  country,  swarms  with  priests.  Be- 
sides the  higher  classes  of  ecclesiastics,  who  amount 
to  three  or  four  thousand,  there  are  more  than  thirty 
thousand  curates  scattered  throughout  the  country. 
But  it  is  not  so  much  by  the  pulpit,  as  by  imposing 
rites  and  ceremonies,  that  Popery  influences  the 
minds  of  the  People.  The  Roman  Catholic  church, 
in  France,  has  had  her  pulpit  orators,  men  whose 
names  shone  like  stars  in  the  seventeennth  cen- 
tury; and,  though  her  glory  in  this  respect  has 
departed  with  the  Bossuets  and  Massillons,  she  is 
not  without  celebrated  preachers  still.  But  as  a 
church,  the  pulpit  is  by  no  means  the  seat  of  her 
power.  The  performance  of  the  mass,  the  pomp  and 
pageantry  of  her  ceremonies,  the  readiness  with  which 
she  grants  absolution  from  sin,  and  such  like,  exert 
the  influence,  and  more  than  the  influence,  which 
belongs  to  the  pulpit  in  Protestant  countries.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  church  of  France  previous  to 
the  great  revolution,  was  filled  with  men  of  secret  or 
avowed  infidel  principles.  That  church,  as  we  have 
'  The  Religious  Condition  of  Cliristondom,  p.  347. 


THE   PULPIT.  593 

seen,  left  the  people  in  deplorable  ignorance ;  and 
must  bear  a  considerable  portion  of  the  guilt  of  those 
terrible  excesses  which  stained  the  Revolution.  At 
the  present  day,  her  clergy,  while  wondrously  apt 
and  vigorous  in  accommodating  themselves  to  every 
turn  of  the  political  wheel, — now  blessing,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  people,  trees  of  liberty,  and  preaching 
up  equality  and  fraternity,  and  anon  intriguing  with 
others  to  promote  a  reaction  in  favor  of  despotism, — 
are  doing  nothing  to  put  France  in  possession  of  faith 
in  God.  They  are  yielding  rather  to  the  infidel  spirit 
that  pervades  all  ranks;  or,  at  best,  having  recourse 
to  their  old  superstitions  and  frauds;  and  both  by 
their  political  intrigues  and  religious  impostures,  are 
calling  forth  the  demon  that  would  destroy  every 
thing  that  bears  the  Christian  name.  The  Abbe 
Lacordaire,  who  is  at  present  perhaps  the  most 
popular  and  influential  preacher  in  France,  has  been 
wielding  his  pulpit  power  over  the  thousands  that 
crowd  the  old  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  not  on  the 
side  of  Scriptural  Christianity,  but  on  the  side  of  its 
corruptions.  He  has  since  the  last  revolution,  and 
until  lately,  been  declaiming  rather  on  political  and 
social  questions,  than  exhibiting  and  enforcing  relig- 
ious truth ;  flattering  the  national  vanity  of  the  peo- 
ple by  telling  them  that  they  are  beloved  of  God  and 
will  have  the  first  rank  in  heaven,  instead  of  begetting 
in  them  humility,  repentance  toward  God,  and  faith 
toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  In  so  far,  then,  as 
the  pulpit  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  in   France 

38 


594  THE    PULPIT, 

is  concerned,  we  have  an  agency  that,  upon  the  whole, 
is  powerless  for  good,  and  which  is  exerting  whatever 
influence  it  possesses,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
against  spiritual  Christianity.  One  red  republican, 
pointing  to  the  Bible,  which  he  had  been  induced 
to  read,  said  to  another  revolutionist  that  had  come 
to  discuss  other  matters,  "Robert,  Robert,  not  till 
that  book  fills  the  empty  throne  of  France  can 
France  be  happy."^  Rather  would  we  say,  not  till 
the  pure  Gospel  be  enthroned  in  her  many  pulpits, 
and  she  possess  an  extensive  thoroughly  Christian 
pulpit  agency,  can  she  cease  to  resemble  the  troubled 
sea  which  cannot  rest. 

If  from  the  Roman  Catholic,  we  turn  to  the  Protest- 
ant reformed  church  in  France,  matters,  considering 
what  we  expect  from  Protestantism,  are  far  from 
cheering.  French  protestantism,  which  owed  its 
organization  to  the  great  Calvin,  flourished  vigorously 
for  a  lengthened  period,  and  exerted  a  happy  influence 
on  the  country.  It  has  been  calculated  that,  at  one 
time,  there  were  in  France  about  five  millions  of 
Calvinists  forming  between  two  and  three  thousand 
churches,  and  that  from  their  pulpits  sounded  forth 
that  Gospel  which  multitudes  from  all  lands  flocked 
to  hear  from  the  reformer's  lips.  The  revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  gave  a  fatal  blow  to  the  Protest- 
ant churches,  dissolved  their  organization,  and  dis- 
persed the  faithful.  The  blood  of  the  Huguenots  is 
still  upon  France  and  upon  her  children.  Religious 
'  Evangelical  Christendom,  March,  1851. 


THE    PULPIT.  595 

liberty,  a  thing  long  unknown,  was  in  some  measure 
established  under  the  consulate  of  Napoleon,  but  the 
Protestants  were  not  free  to  assemble  as  an  ecclesias- 
tical body.  This  right  they  enjoyed,  amid  the  disso- 
lution of  the  social  frame  work  that  happened  at  the 
February  revolution.  And  the  assembly  of  the  Pro- 
testant delegates  held  in  Paris  a  few  years  ago,  indi- 
cated, in  some  measure,  the  kind  of  influence  exerted 
by  the  pulpit  of  the  French  Protestant  church.  That 
there  are  men  of  evangelical  views,  of  devoted  piety 
and  of  pulpit  power,  among  her  teachers,  besides  the 
noble  few  who  have  seceded  and  formed  an  indepen- 
dent church  on  the  true  principle  of  individual  pro- 
fession, we  gladly  acknowledge,  but  they  are  decidedly 
in  a  minority.  And  what  is  to  be  thought  of  a  church 
which,  not  having  met  in  assembly  for  a  very  long 
period,  shrinks,  when  it  does  meet,  from  adverting 
to  the  state  of  its  doctrines,  and  rejects,  almost 
unanimously,  a  proposal  to  place  a  confession  of 
positive  faith  at  the  base  of  its  organization?  The 
latitudinarian  and  the  orthodox  repose  under  the 
same  shadow,  and,  for  the  sake  of  preserving  an 
external  uniformity,  the  utmost  license  in  inter- 
preting Bible  and  symbol  is  conceded.  This  system 
so  widely  prevalent  on  the  Continent,  is  well  cal- 
culated to  rationalize  a  church,  and  to  admit  men 
of  pantheistical  or  neological  views  into  her  pulpits. 
The  majority  of  the  Paris  synod  were  uiiquestionabl}- 
rationalistic  in  their  leanings,  men  adverse  or  in- 
different  to   those   great   doctrines   which   constitute 


596  THE    PULPIT. 

the  glory  of  the  Reformation.  The  pulpit  agency 
of  the  French  Protestant  church  must,  therefore, 
to  a  large  extent,  be  counted  among  the  agencies 
that  are  against  Scriptural  Christianity. 

Various  influences  have  contributed  to  produce  this 
result.  The  sceptical  philosophy  of  last  century  in- 
fected the  minds  of  many  of  the  pastors.  It  entered 
into  the  sacred  place  as  well  as  ran  riot  in  the  outer 
courts.  Numbers  of  the  sworn  servants  of  Christ 
yielded  to  the  deadly  power  of  the  reign  of  material- 
ism. In  addition  to  this,  the  rationalistic  socinian- 
ism  of  Geneva  came  over  and  gradually  took  possess- 
ion of  almost  all  the  Protestant  pulpits.  It  is  from 
the  low  Socinian  Academy  of  Geneva  that  the  greater 
number  of  the  preachers  that  minister  in  the  French 
church,  have  been  obtained.  Here,  then,  in  the 
church  of  Farel  and  Calvin  and  Beza, — a  church 
which  should  prove  a  check  to  the  superstitions  of 
Romanism  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  doctrines  of 
an  infidel  socialism  on  the  other, — we  have  the  greater 
portion  of  the  pulpit  agency  on  the  wrong  side.  Over 
against  that  we  set  the  few  good  men  within  her  pale, 
and  that  little  but  increasing  band  who  bid  fair  to  do 
valiantly  without — taking,  as  they  do,  for  their  motto, 
"No  indifferentism,  no  exclusiveness."  And  while 
we  beseech  God  to  send  prosperity  both  to  the  one  and 
the  other,  the  thought  is  depressing  that  the  pulpit 
of  such  a  church  should,  for  the  most  part,  be  of  a 
character  much  more  gratifying  to  the  infidel  than  to 
the  Christian. 


THE    PULPIT.  597 

If  from  this  rapid  glance  at  tlie  state  of  the  pulpit 
on  the  Continent,  we  fix  our  attention  on  our  oivn 
country^  we  witness  much  more  that  is  cheering ;  but 
here  also  the  pulpit,  to  some  extent,  is  made  an  agent 
of  evil.  The  Gospel  is  the  glory  and  defence  of  our 
beloved  land,  and  to  its  influence  more  than  to  any- 
thing else,  we  owe  the  high  position  that  our  sea-girt 
isle  occupies  among  the  nations,  and  the  stability  of 
our  social  fabric  amid  the  shakings  of  principalities  and 
powers.  England  and  Scotland  are  indebted  to  the 
treasure  which  the  Reformation  gave,  or  rather  re- 
stored to  them,  for  their  intellectual,  moral,  social, 
and  physical  prosperity.  In  both  parts  of  the  island, 
we  exult  in  thinking  that  there  are  thousands  of  pul- 
pits, both  in  the  established  and  dissenting  churches, 
sounding  forth  every  sabbath,  to  millions  of  our  popu- 
lation, the  genuine  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  "We 
regard  the  evangelical  pulpit  of  Great  Britain,"  says 
a  writer  whose  judgment  in  such  matters  is  to  be 
confided  in,^  "with  all  its  faults,  as  presenting  to  the 
millions  of  our  people,  a  fuller  and  better  proportioned 
view  of  revealed  truth,  and  of  the  piety  which  that 
truth  should  produce,  than  has  been  exhibited  to  any 
generation  since  the  age  of  inspired  teachers."  But 
while  this  is  gratefully  and  joyfully  acknowledged,  it 
must  not  blind  us  to  the  existence  of  a  pulpit  agency 
xmong  us  which  is  the  very  opposite  of  evangelical. 
*V^e  refer  not  so  much  to  the  rationalistic  preachers 
vho  are  to  be  found  here  and  there,  in  a  solitary 
'  Dr.  Vaudian. 


598  THE    rULPIT. 

state,  in  our  large  towns,  and  whose  influence  is  by 
no  means  very  great,  as  to  tlie  tractarians  who  fill, 
in  considerable  numbers,  the  pulpits  of  the  Episcopal 
Church. 

It  is  to  the  praise  of  all  the  Evangelical  Noncon- 
forming churches  on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed,  that  a 
departure  from  what  is  generally  regarded  as  the  arti- 
culus  stantis  vel  cadentis  ecclesice^  is  followed  either  by 
deposition  or  a  forfeiture  of  communion.  It  must  be 
admitted,  also,  that  the  Scottish  Establishment  is 
generally  much  more  careful  to  guard  against  the  ad- 
mission of  faithless  men  into  her  pulpits,  than  the 
Establishment  in  England.  The  time  was  when  mod- 
eratism  had  the  ascendency  in  the  church  of  Knox, 
when  all  that  is  peculiarly  evangelical  was  frowned 
upon,  and  much  that  is  opposed  to  evangelism  was 
winked  at,  when  many  of  her  pulpits  gave  forth  mo- 
rality for  the  Gospel,  and  doctrines  disparaging  to 
the  person  and  work  of  the  Redeemer.  But  that 
time  happily  is  gone ;  and,  however  much  formalism 
and  lifelessness  may  be  seen  in  some  places,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  in  the  establishment,  or  in  the  several 
vigorous  evangelical  nonconforming  churches  by  which 
she  is  surrounded,  there  is  anything  deserving  the 
name  of  a  pulpit  agency  on  the  side  adverse  to  spirit- 
ual Christianity. 

It  is  otherwise,  however,  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  England.  There,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  are 
a  number  of  choice  saintly  men,  both  in  large  towns 
and   rural   parishes,  upon  whom   the    mantle    of  the 


THE    PULPIT.  699 

apostolic  band,  that  labored  within  her  during  the 
deadness  of  last  century,  seems  to  have  fallen,  and 
who  have  great  sorrow  and  heaviness  of  heart  for 
the  state  of  their  Zion.  It  is  unquestionable  that, 
during  the  last  fifty  or  sixty  years,  the  evangelical 
leaven  has  made  much  progress  within  her  pale,  and 
that  the  number  of  her  earnest  believing  preachers 
has  greatly  increased.  But  these  are  just  like  scat- 
tered lights  in  a  wide  extent  of  dark  space.  It  is 
no  slander,  but  the  very  truth,  when  it  is  asserted 
that  under  the  shadow  of  that  great  establishment 
are  to  be  found  multitudes  of  pastors  and  teachers 
who  are  preaching  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  another 
gospel  than  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Men  who  know 
not  the  truth,  and  care  not  a  fig  about  it,  readily  get 
admission  into  her  pulpits.  Personal  conversion  to 
God  is  not  generally  inquired  after,  as  an  indispens- 
able qualification  for  the  ministry.  Such  a  qualifi- 
cation, in  hundreds  of  cases,  would  be  stigmatized 
as  puritanism,  or  methodism,  or  pietism.  A  formal 
subscription  to  the  thirty-nine  articles,  is,  in  such 
cases,  the  sure  passport  to  investure  with  the  sacred 
office.  Thus  multitudes  of  men,  who  know  not 
the  way  of  salvation  themselves,  are  constituted  the 
spiritual  guides  of  others.  It  is  the  blind  leading 
the  blind.  From  the  ministrations  of  such  teachers, 
we  could  glean  little  more  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
than  from  the  pages  of  Seneca  or  Epictetus.  A  cold 
prudential  morality  is  substituted  for  the  truth  as  it 
is   in   Jesus,  that   truth   in   the   belief  of  which   the 


600  THE    PULPIT. 

sinner  is  justified,  sanctified  and  saved.  This  is 
an  agency  at  once  adverse  to  Scriptural  Christianity 
and  ruinous  to  men's  souls. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Tractarianism  is  the  growing- 
evil.  It  may  be  resolved,  as  we  have  said,  into  a  re- 
action against  the  materialism  that  had  crept  over 
the  church,  but  it  is  not  less  fatal  to  the  spiritual 
Christianity  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  not  merely 
the  preaching  of  a  lifeless  morality  that  makes  the 
pulpit  an  agency  in  deluding  and  destroying  men, 
but  the  inculcation  of  doctrines  that  are  in  open 
conflict  with  the  great  Scriptural  principles  of  the 
Reformation.  The  last  few  years  have  shown  a 
wide-spread  defection  in  this  direction  on  the  part  of 
the  ordained  instructors  of  the  people.  "  Those  men 
at  Oxford,"  said  Dr.  Arnold,  on  the  first  appearance 
of  the  Tracts,  "I  necessarily  shrink  from  them  when 
I  see  them  laboring  so  incessantly,  though  I  doubt 
not  so  ignorantly,  to  enthrone  the  very  mystery  of 
falsehood  and  iniquity  in  that  neglected  and  dishon- 
ored temple,  the  church  of  God."  Oxford,  the  seat 
of  the  pernicious  heresy,  sends  forth  her  disciples 
thoroughly  imbued  with  tractarianism,  who  find  their 
way  into  the  pulpits.  And  there  they,  in  number 
and  strength  no  contemptible  band,  advocate  sabbath 
after  sabbath,  and  day  after  day,  a  theological  system 
that  is  in  direct  antagonism  with  Scripture  and  the 
evangelical  religion  of  England.  The  teaching  of 
innumerable  pulpits  in  the  church  of  Cranmer,  exalts 
the   church  into   the   place   of  her   Lord,  assigns   an 


THE    PULPIT. 


GOl 


efficacy  to   a  mere   ritual  wliicli  belongs  only  to  the 
Divine   Spirit,  and  leads  men  to  rest  in  mere  outward 
observances,  instead  of  bringing  tliem  to  rest  exclu- 
sively in  the  finished  work  of  Christ.     Tractarianism 
indeed,  when  full  blown,  would  throw  the  pulpit  into 
the  shade,  make  the  ministers  of  religion  little  more 
than  masters  of  ceremonies;    and,  instead  of  saying 
with  Paul,   "Christ   sent   me   not   to   baptize,  but  to 
preach  the  Gospel,"  would  teach  each  of  them  to  say, 
"Christ  sent  me  not   to   preach   the   Gospel,  but   to 
baptize."     But  the  pulpit,  at  present,  must   minister 
to  the  forms.     Baptismal  regeneration  and  such  like 
errors  must  have  an  advocate  in  the  preacher.     The 
tendency  of  such  a  system  of  pulpit  ministration   is 
at   once   to    enervate    the   manliness   of   the   British 
mind,   and    obscure,   or    take   away,   that   foundation 
other   than   which   can  no   man    lay.       This   agency 
is    extensively   exerted   on   thousands   of    our    coun- 
trymen  of  all   classes,  in   a   church  which   was   one 
of  the   glories    of    the    Reformation.       Its  influence 
on  many  of  our   aristocracy  has  been  made  too  ob- 
vious, its  influence  on  multitudes  of  humbler  parish- 
ioners can   be  easily  imagined,  and,  unless  checked, 
it  promises  to  eat  out  the  evangelicalism  that  remains 
in   the    Church   of  England.       Spiritual    Christianity 
being  supplanted  by  this  formalism,  the  consequence 
will  be,  as  in  like  cases,  an  increase  of  indififerentism 
or  avowed  infidelity.     "  If  the  Church  of  England," 
remarks    D'Aubigne,    "were    well    administered,    she 
would  only  admit  to  her  pulpits  teachers  who  submit 


602  THE   PULPIT. 

to  the  Word  of  God  agreeably  to  the  thirty-nine  arti- 
cles, and  banish  from  them  all  those  who  violate  her 
laws,  and  poison  the  minds  of  youth,  trouble  souls,  and 
seek  to  overthrow  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."^ 

We  have  not  attempted  anything  like  a  full  estimate 
of  pulpit  agency.  Much,  both  of  good  and  evil  at- 
tributable to  its  influence,  has  necessarily  escaped  our 
notice.  We  have  limited  our  view  to  those  parts  of 
Christendom  where  the  various  forms  of  infidelity 
have  appeared  most  conspicuous.  And,  without  ig- 
noring the  vast  amount  of  good  effected  by  the  pulpit, 
we  see  that  its  agency  is  much  employed  on  the  side 
of  evil.  The  office  hallowed  by  the  labors  of  our 
Lord  and  his  apostles,  and  which  occupies  the  fore- 
most place  among  the  means  of  promoting  religion 
in  the  world,  has  been  largely  perverted  to  the  service 
of  the  adversary.  That  agency  which  stands  apart 
from  and  lifted  high  above  all  other  agencies  by  its 
sanctity  has  often  been  degraded  to  unholy  purposes. 
And  in  the  pulpit,  the  divinely  appointed  instrument 
of  publishing  truth  and  extending  Christ's  kingdom, 
all  the  forms  of  unbelief  have  had  and  still  have  their 
abettors  in  considerable  numbers. 


In  looking  at  the  aspects,  in  tracing  the  causes, 
and  in  estimating  the  agencies  of  infidelity,  we  have 
found  much  to  excite  our  fears,  but  nothing  whatever 

'  Geneva  and  Oxford.     By  D'Aubigne. 


THE    PULPIT.  603 

to  shake  our  faith.  No  one  can  view  the  amount  of 
evil  embodied  in  the  various  forms  of  unbelief,  and 
the  divers  agencies  employed  for  its  propagation, 
without  a  feeling  of  apprehension.  Infidelity  is  a 
siren  that  allures  men  but  to  destroy  them.  No  one, 
on  the  other  hand,  can  contemplate  Christianity  in 
itself,  in  its  evidences,  in  its  past  history,  and  in  its 
present  position  and  influence,  without  lively  hope. 
We  have  seen  the  argumentative  resources  of  infidelity 
to  be  miserably  weak,  but  infidelity  itself  to  be  pliant, 
active,  and  strong  for  mischief  Beaten  though  every 
form  of  it  has  been,  thousands  of  times,  in  the  field  of 
argument,  it  has  had  the  daring,  a  season  after  each 
defeat,  to  reappear  in  a  somewhat  modified  form  and 
renew  the  attack.  The  modern  assailants  of  Chris- 
tianity are  not  men  of  more  metal  than  its  assailants 
of  old ;  and  notwithstanding  their  wily  and  insidious 
movements,  we  are  persuaded  that  they  will  be 
as  thoroughly  beaten  as  ever  their  predecessors  were. 
Our  fears  are  not  for  Christianity.  She  is  not  noiu 
on  her  trial.  She  has  passed  through  the  furnace 
long  ago ;  and,  in  coming  out  of  the  trial,  has  been 
powerfully  declared  to  be  heavenly  in  her  origin,  in 
her  nature,  and  in  her  aims.  The  battle  has  been 
fought,  the  victory  has  been  won.  Each  succeeding 
strife  is  only  the  opening  up  of  an  already  decided 
contest,  to  be  closed  again  with  new  triumphs  to  the 
Christian  cause.  More  deeply  rooted  than  ever  in 
the  belief  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  of  God,  that  it 
is   destined    to   march   onward    among    the   nations. 


604  THE    PULPIT. 

and  ultimately  to  bless  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  we 
would  close  in  offering  up  in  the  church's  name,  the 
devout  ode  which  she  offered  of  old : — ■ 

GOD  be  merciful  unto  us  and  bless  us;  and  cause  his  face  to  shine 

upon  us. 
That  thy  way  may  be  known  upon  earth,  thy  saving  health  among  all 

nations. 
Let  the  people  praise  thee,  0  God ;  let  all  the  people  praise  thee. 

0  let  the  nations  be  glad  and  sing  for  joy  : 

For  thou  shalt  judge  the  people  righteously,  and  govern  the  nations 
upon  earth. 

Let  the  people  praise  thee,  0  God ;  let  all  the  people  praise  thee. 

Then  shall  the  earth  yield  her  increase ;  and  God,  even  our  own  God, 

shall  bless  us. 
God  shall  bless  us ;  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  fear  him. 


APPENDIX. 


REMARKS    ON    SECULARISM.^ 


Grecian  mythology  tells  us  of  a  marine  deity  whose 
distinguishing  characteristic  was  the  faculty  of  assum- 
ing different  shapes.  Proteus  was  the  very  symbol  of 
infidelity.  Its  history  is  but  a  history  of  changes. 
Exceedingly  pliable  in  its  principles,  and  versatile  in 
its  form — passing  out  of  one  phase  into  another,  ever 
modifying  its  professions  and  changing  its  names — 
it  would  be  nothing  less  than  a  libel  to  say  that  it  is 
the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.  In  our  age 
the  thing  has  put  on  new  garbs,  undergone  one  or 
more  baptisms,  and  altered  its  tone.  It  is  unstable 
as  water,  it  cannot  excel.  Proteus  was,  however, 
the  same  wanton  sea-god,  under  all  the  different 
shapes  which  he  had  assumed.  And  we  detect  in 
every  form  of  modern  infidelity — despite  its  wonderful 
pliancy  and  softened  names — the  old  enemy  of  God's 
truth  and  man's  weal. 

Since  treating  of  the  aspects  of  infidelity  in  the 
proceeding  essay,  what  seems,  at  first  sight,  a  new 
phase,  has  turned  up.  Undisguised  atheism  has 
failed  to  reach  the  dominion  to  which  it  aspired 
among  the  working  classes.  Thorough-going  infidel 
'  Chiefly  suggested  by  the  recent  London  debate. 


606  APPENDIX. 

principles,  bearing  tlie  appropriate  mark,  do  not  take 
nearly  so  well,  as  could  be  wished,  with  the  public. 
The  representatives  of  the  Owen  school  have  accord- 
ingly applied  themselves  "  to  the  re-inspection  of  the 
general  field  of  controversy,"  and  the  result,  as  we 
have  already  hinted,  has  been  the  rejection  of  the 
old  ill-reputed  names,  and  the  adoption  of  the  better- 
looking  title — Secularism.  From  being  one  of  the 
most  intolerant,  they  are  about  to  become  the  most 
tolerant  of  all  sects  in  the  world.  They  are  "to 
recognize  the  sincerity  of  the  clergy,  and  the  good 
intention  of  Christians  generally."  They  are  no 
longer  to  doubt  "the  truthful  purpose  of  the  pro- 
phets and  the  apostles,  and  the  moral  excellence  of 
many  passages  in  their  writings."  The  door  is 
widened  so  as  to  admit  the  "various  classes  of  per- 
sons known  for  their  dissent  from  the  popular  Chris- 
tian tenets  of  the  day," — these  various  classes  com- 
prehending men  who  "  reject  the  authority  of  miracles,'' 
and  "allege  general  objections  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  Bible,"  as  well  as  those  who  "  question  the  dogma 
of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,"  and  "  an  increasing 
party"  who  cannot  "  subscribe  to  the  arguments  sup- 
posed to  establish  the  existence  of  a  Being  distinct 
from  nature."  We  cannot  conceal  our  gratification 
at  these  shifts,  symptomatic  as  they  are  of  anything 
but  strength.  But  Ave  are  not  to  be  imposed  upon 
by  them.  Our  secularists  claim  the  right  of  preserv- 
ing a  "  discretionary  silence."  There  would  be  little 
discretion  on  the  part  of  us  who  have  at  heart  the 
best    interests   of    the  working   classes,   did   we   not 


APPENDIX.  607 

break  silence,  and  say,  "  secularism"  is  atheism  in 
disguise — that  it  is  designed  to  inculcate  the  latter 
when  the  people  are  able  to  bear  it,  secularism  in 
the  meantime  being  the  cry  while  a  "discretionary 
silence"  is  to  be  kept  in  reference  to  atheism.  The 
secularist  apostle  himself  has  so  far  outgrown  the 
common  covering,  that  he  cannot  preserve  the  "dis- 
cretionary silence,"  even  when  insisting  on  the  right 
and  propriety  of  doing  so.  "  There  are  many  of  us," 
said  he,  when  lately  expounding  "  secularism"  before 
a  large  London  audience,  "  who  trace  all  religious 
evil  to  one  root,  and  regard  '  the  belief  in  a  God  as 
an  Atlas  of  error  bearing  on  its  broad  shoulders  a 
world  of  immoralities.'  .  .  .  What  some  call 
atheism  is  in  one  sense  suspensive  in  secularism." 
It  is  not,  then,  really  a  new  phase  of  infidelity,  but 
a  compound  of  old  systems.  It  is  not  an  "aspect" 
essentially  different  from  those  aspects  which  have 
passed  under  our  review,  but  inclusive  of  all  of  them 
except  the  last.  Down  the  broad  way  and  through 
the  wide  gate  of  "  secularism,"  the  atheist,  the  pan- 
theist, the  rationalist,  the  spiritualist,  and  the  man 
who  denies  responsibility — all  may  pass,  except  the 
individul  who  has  the  form  of  godliness. 

1.  We  notice,  first,  the  "suspensive"  principle — 
the  non-belief  in  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being 
distinct  from  nature.  Mr.  Holyoake's  position,  is 
"  the  nature  which  we  know  must  be  the  God  which 
we  seek."  The  wondrous  manifestations  of  nature 
indispose  him  to  degrade  it  to  a  secondary  rank." 
He  is  not  satisfied  with  the  arguments  for  the  exist- 


608  APPENDIX. 

ence  of  a  God — tliey  do  not  give  him  certainty.  We 
have  here  two  questions  to  ask: — the  first  is,  What 
arguments  give  him  certainty  that  the  nature  which 
we  know  must  be  the  God  which  we  seek  ?  The 
second  is,  Has  the  mind  of  man  been  so  constituted 
as  to  rest  satisfied  with  nature  for  a  God  ?  A  direct 
negative  must  be  given  to  both  questions.  The 
position  occupied  by  the  secularist  apostle  is  an  ex- 
tremely absurd  one.  He  demands  evidence  of  a  kind 
or  degree  that  the  subject  from  its  nature  does  not 
admit.  It  is  tantamount  to  saying  "  there  may  be  a 
God,  but  no  evidence  for  his  existence  will  convince 
me."  The  only  way  to  meet  such  a  man  in  contro- 
versy is  to  take  him  up  on  his  own  ground.  You 
demand  entire  satisfaction  to  the  intellect  before  you 
will  believe  in  the  Divine  existence.  Partial  satisfac- 
tion to  the  intellect  is  all  that  is  attainable  on  the 
subject.  And  you  can  pretend  to  no  more  than  par- 
tial satisfaction  in  adopting  the  proposition  that  the 
nature  which  we  know  must  be  the  God  which  we 
seek.  You  renounce  the  belief  in  God  for  want  of 
certainty,  and  you  believe  in  nature  as  occupying  the 
first  rank  in  existence,  without  anything  deserving 
the  name  of  certainty.  But  man  has  moral  instincts 
as  well  as  an  intellectual  faculty,  and  in  the  strength  of 
these  instincts  has  been  kindly  provided  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  weakness  of  our  intellects.  These  moral 
instincts  refuse  to  rest  in  "the  nature  which  we 
know," — the  soul  and  conscience  recoil  from  accept- 
ing it  as  "  The  God  which  we  seek."  In  other  words, 
the    mind    of  man,   from   its  very  constitution,  goes 


APPENDIX.  609 

beyond  nature,  and  demands  for  its  rest  the  existence 
of  a  Supreme  Being  distinct  from  nature.  The 
choice  then,  on  this  ground,  lies  between  non-belief 
in  the  Divine  existence  for  want  of  entire  certainty, 
with  thwarting  or  repressing  the  moral  instincts ; 
and  belief  in  that  existence  which  partially,  at  least, 
satisfies  the  intellect,  and  which  is  fully  demanded 
by  the  heart.  The  light  of  intellect  in  that  man  is 
surely  darkness,  and  prodigious  violence  must  have 
been  done  to  the  instincts  of  his  soul  and  conscience, 
who,  in  view  of  "the  wondrous  manifestations  of 
nature,"  can  maintain  that  nature  is  degraded  in 
placing  over  it  a  creating  and  presiding  mind !  The 
top-stone  of  secularism  would  be  laid  in  material 
idolatry.  Men  will  not  suffer  "the  existence  of 
Deity"  to  be  thrust  aside  as  an  "  abstract  question,'' 
and  labelled  "not  settled."  If  men  are  to  be  robbed 
of  the  conception  of  an  immutably  glorious  Being 
distinct  from  nature — a  conception  which  "borrows 
splendor  from  all  that  is  fair,  subordinates  to  itself 
all  that  is  great,  and  sits  enthroned  on  the  riches  of 
the  universe" — the  substitute  inevitably  will  be 
fetichism  or  nature-worship. 

2.  The  first  fundamental  principle  of  secularism — a 
principle  not  "suspensive,"  but  openly  avowed,  and 
to  which  all  secularists  must  subscribe — is,  "  that 
precedence  should  be  given  to  duties  of  this  life 
over  those  which  pertain  to  another  world;"  the  as- 
sumption being  that  "  this  life  being  the  first  in  cer- 
tainty, it  ought  to  have  the  first  place  in  importance." 
This  simply  resolves  itself  into  the   proposition  that 


610  APPENDIX. 

the  seen  is  more  certain  tlian  the  unseen,  that  what 
we  know  personally  is  more  certain  than  what  we 
know  only  by  testimony,  and  the  inference  is  that  there- 
fore the  former  must,  in  importance,  take  precedence 
of  the  latter.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  we  deny  that 
the  seen,  strictly  speaking,  is  more  certain  than  the 
unseen;  and,  secondly,  admitting  that  it  is  relatively 
more  certain,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  more  import- 
ant. It  is  not  more  certain  that  water  always  exists 
in  a  fluid  state  in  a  warm  eastern  climate  than  it  is 
that  water  exists  as  ice  in  cold  regions,  though  to  the 
King  of  Siam  who  had  always  lived  in  a  warm  climate, 
the  one  was  more  certain  than  the  other.  Again,  the 
seen,  in  one  sense,  may  be  more  certain  than  the  un- 
seen, and  yet  the  latter  may  be  the  more  important. 
Relatively  to  myself  it  is  more  certain  that  I  am 
thinking  and  acting  just  now,  than  it  is  that  I  will  be 
doing  so  to-morrow,  and  yet  to-morrow,  in  the  sum  of 
my  thoughts  and  actions,  may  be  a  day  of  greater 
importance  in  my  history  than  the  day  now  present. 
Mathematical  truth,  in  one  sense,  is  more  certain 
than  moral  truth,  but  no  one  will  say  that  it  is  of 
greater  importance.  In  short,  no  man  is  warranted 
to  assume  the  first  and  fundamental  position  of  Secu- 
larism unless  he  is  sure  that  there  is  no  future  life. 
Our  secularists  have  no  certainty  on  this  point,  yet 
they  build  their  system  on  the  supposition  that  they 
have — that  is  to  say,  they  build  upon  the  uncertain, 
the  very  ground,  as  they  allege,  on  which  the  doctrine 
of  a  future  life  stands,  and  for  which  they  ignore  or 
reject  it.     The  doctrine  itself  does  not   admit  of  de- 


APPENDIX.  611 

monstrative  but  of  probable  evidence.  Independent 
of  the  Scripture  testimony,  there  are  (as  Dr.  Chalmers 
in  his  Lectures  on  Butler's  Analogy  has  remarked,) 
high  probabilities  for  the  immortality  of  man,  founded 
not  on  that  which  is  common  to  him  with  the  other 
organic  creatures,  but  on  that  which  is  peculiar  and 
which  signalizes  him  from  or  above  the  others — as 
the  conscience  which  is  his  exclusively,  and  those 
indefinite  powers  and  aspirations  which  are  his  exclus- 
ively. These,  which  point  man  to  a  future  life,  will 
lead  him  to  believe  in  such  a  well-attested  revelation 
of  it  as  the  Gospel,  unless  the  hand  of  violence, 
thwarting  the  moral  instincts,  puts  it  away  from  him. 
Secularism  prefers  the  present  over  the  future  for  no 
better  reason  than  that  it  is  present,  a  reason  repu- 
diated by  every  secularist  who  takes  his  passage  to 
Australia.  Some  men  who  act  rationally  enough  in 
the  region  of  the  material,  doff  their  rationality  when- 
ever they  touch  upon  the  borders  of  the  spiritual. 
Again,  our  secularists,  on  the  supposition  of  a  future 
life,  are  guilty  of  a  fundamental  error  in  mapping  off 
the  moral  duties — saying,  these  belong  exclusively  to 
the  present,  and  those  belong  to  the  future — they  are 
chargeable  too  with  much  misrepresentation  in  affirm- 
ing that  the  teachings  of  Christianity  make  men  in- 
different to  the  one  and  absorb  them  in  the  other. 
There  is  no  such  separation  of  duties.  All  the  duties 
of  Christianity  pertain  to  the  present  life,  and  are 
related  to  the  future  just  as  the  seed  sown  is  related 
to  the  harvest  to  be  reaped.  The  duties  of  Chris- 
tianity may  be  said  to  be  summed  up  in  the  word 


612  APPENDIX. 

faith.  But,  as  has  been  -well  expressed  by  Mr.  Riddle 
in  his  Bampton  Lecture,  "the  man  who  lives  the  life 
of  faith  is  the  man  who  at  the  same  time  works  the 
works  of  God, — works  of  integrity  and  uprightness, — 
vrorks  of  benevolence  and  mercy, — works  of  industry 
and  labor, — works  for  the  glory  of  God  and  for  the 
welfare  of  mankind, — works  as  of  one  who  has  a 
spring  of  activity  within  him,  as  well  as  a  glorious 
reward  before  him."  "It  is  wholly  a  mistake,"  ob- 
serves Chalmers  in  his  Prelections  on  Paley,  "that 
in  a  mind  of  ordinary  soundness  the  force  of  the  re- 
ligious principle,  even  to  the  utmost,  either  unfits  or 
withdraws  from  the  necessary  attention  we  should 
give  to  the  business  of  the  day,  and  the  accommoda- 
tions of  the  day Suppose  a  person  setting 

out  on  a  far  journey  to  a  place  where,  on  his  arrival, 
he  knew  that  a  magnificent  fortune  awaited  him. 
His  heart  would  be  there.  His  thoughts  would  be 
ever  carrying  him  forward  in  contemplation  there; 
yet  all  this  engrossment  and  big  expectation  of  what 
he  was  tending  to,  would  not  strip  him  of  the  neces- 
sary attention  and  self-command  for  giving  the  requi- 
site directions  on  the  road,  for  ordering  the  right 
accommodation  at  night,  for  arranging  a  constant 
conveyance  from  one  place  to  another,  or  even  for 
remarking  on  the  loveliness  of  the  successive  scenes, 
and  noting  either  the  comfort  that  gladdens  or  the 
beauty  that  smiles  on  the  passing  traveller." 
'  3,  A  second  avowed  principle  of  secularism  is, 
that  "science  is  the  providence  of  man,  and  that 
absolute   spiritual   dependency   may  involve   material 


APPENDIX.  613 

destruction.'"  By  science  is  meant  "those  method- 
ized agencies  which  are  at  our  command — that  sys- 
tematized knowledge  which  enables  us  to  use  the 
powers  of  nature  for  human  benefit."  By  spiritual 
dependency  is  meant  "  application  to  heaven  by  prayer, 
expecting  that  help  will  come  to  us."  On  this  plat- 
form such  men  as  Combe,  Owen,  and  Holyoake 
meet.  The  former  part  of  the  proposition  is  a  mere 
assertion  without  proof  The  latter  part  involves  a 
gross  misrepresentation  of  the  scriptural  doctrine  of 
providence.  The  secularist  teacher  argues  thus:  "if 
the  despot  and  the  knave  accomplish  their  end  by  a 
vigorous  use  of  material  appliances,  it  is  clear  that 
natural  resources  are  independent  of  any  form  of  re- 
ligious faith,  and  the  patriot  and  the  honest  man 
may  hope  to  succeed  by  equal  or  greater  vigor, 
whatever  may  be  his  speculative  opinions."  It  is  not 
so  clear.  The  force  of  the  argument  is  this:  if  a 
knave  uses  money  effectually  for  accomplishing  his 
bad  ends,  therefore  a  good  man  needs  no  help  from 
God  to  enable  him  to  use  it  for  good  ends.  This  is 
the  death  of  logic.  Science  and  Christianity  are  not 
antagonists.  A  vigorous  use  of  the  one  is  in  perfect 
harmony  with  a  believing  reliance  on  the  other.  A 
true  science  has  made  the  most  brilliant  progress  in 
lands  the  most  illumined  with  the  light  of  Christian- 
ity. But  the  noblest  minds — minds  of  spiritual  depth 
and  possessed  of  vigorous  moral  instincts — after  hav- 
ing mastered  all  known  science,  have  felt  that  it  is 
not  the  providence  of  life.  Dependence  of  a  different 
kind  is  needed  to  satisfy  the  outgoings  and  aspirations 


614  APPENDIX. 

of  the  human  heart,  and  that  is  only  found  in  a 
Divine  Providence.  The  providence  which  secularism 
repudiates  is  not  the  Scriptural  doctrine,  but  a  gross 
caricature  of  it.  "Absolute  spiritual  dependency 
may  involve  material  destruction."  Most  assuredly  it 
may.  "It  has  a  great  tendency  to  check  human 
exertion."  Most  assuredly  it  has.  Let  the  mariner 
put  to  sea  in  a  leaky  and  ill-rigged  ship,  under  the 
pretence  of  trusting  Divine  Providence,  and  the  proba- 
bility is  that  in  the  storm  his  "  absolute  spiritual  de- 
pendency "  will  "involve  material  destruction."  It  was 
absolute  spiritual  dependency  which  the  tempter 
wished  the  Saviour  to  exercise  when  he  said  to  Him, 
"  If  thou  be  the  son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down  from 
the  battlement  of  the  temple:  for  it  is  written,  He 
shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee."  But 
Jesus,  who  taught  that  not  a  sparrow  falls  without 
our  heavenly  Father,  said  unto  him,  "thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  Absolute  spiritual  de- 
pendency is  not  enlightened  trust  but  impious  pre- 
sumption. The  Gospel  teaches  no  such  doctrine. 
Its  doctrine  is  not  "pray,"  but  "watch  and  pray."  By 
providing  a  ground  of  dependence,  and  calling  forth 
a  man's  activities,  it  checks  presumption  on  the  one 
hand,  and  prevents  despair  on  the  other.  The  most 
firm  and  enlightened  believers  in  this  doctrine  have 
been  the  men  who  have  labored  most  for  the  good 
of  humanity.  They  have  never  felt  any  contradiction 
— and  no  man  of  any  spiritual  discernment  and  moral 
honesty  ever  can — ^between  the  Divine  injunction  "be 
anxiously  solicitous  for  nothing,"  and  the  duty  to  guard 


APPENDIY.  615 

against  flood  and  fire, — between  the  precept  "  lay  not 
up  treasures  upon  earth,"  and  making  provision, 
through  the  savings-bank,  for  those  of  their  own 
house.  It  is  here  that  we  see  the  narrow  view,  the 
little  depth,  the  irreverent  dogmatism  of  the  secular- 
ist philosophy.  The  amount  of  what  our  secularist 
teacher  says  is — '  If  there  be  a  Providence,  that  Prov- 
idence would  do  this  and  that ;  and  because  this  and 
that  are  not  done,  there  is  no  Providence.'  Our 
sympathies  are  all  on  the  side  of  the  freedom  of 
Poland,  and  against  the  oppressors  of  Italy;  but  it 
were  intolerable  presumption  and  daring  impiety  in 
us  whose  survey  is  so  limited,  to  say,  as  the  expounder 
of  secularism  has  said,  that  were  there  a  Providence, 
Poland  would  be  free  and  Mazzini  would  rule  in  Italy 
to-morrow.  All  history  shows  that  national  as  well 
as  individual  suffering  is  disciplinary,  that  God  is 
ever  educing  good  out  of  evil,  and  that  protracted  op- 
pressions which  we  would  soon  bring  to  an  end,  are 
made  under  his  control  to  contribute  the  more  effect- 
ually at  last  to  the  overthrow  of  despotism  and  to  the 
stability  of  true  liberty.  Would  not  the  special  inter- 
position of  providence  that  secularism  demands  check 
human  exertion  ?  It  would  assuredly  leave  no  room 
for  the  cultivation  of  those  virtues  which  national 
struggles  call  forth,  and  which  have  made  our  own 
people  the  richest  inheritors  and  the  best  guardians 
of  freedom.  Secularism  stands  condemned  at  the  bar 
of  the  world's  history. 

4.  The   third   avowed  principle   of    secularism    is, 
"  that  there  exist,  independently  of  Scriptural  author- 


616  APPENDIX. 

ity,  guarantees  of  morals  in  human  nature,  intelligence, 
and  utility."  For  proofs  of  these  guarantees,  we  have 
nothing  but  assertions.  "  There  are  certainly,"  it  is 
said,  "  many  persons  who  hardly  ever  sin."  An  ex- 
pression contrary  to  individual  experience  and 
universal  observation,  and,  even  if  true,  no  proof  of 
the  position  itself.  What  is  wanted  is  a  broad  proof 
not  that  many  persons  hardly  ever  sin  but  that  men 
in  general  never  sin.  It  is  altogether  an  assump- 
tion— an  assumption  disowned  by  every  man  of  self- 
knowledge — that  human  nature  in  the  sum  of  its 
passions  and  natural  qualities  is  incorrupt  and  un- 
defiled,  and  that  the  corruption  manifested  is  to  be 
attributed  to  a  "doubtfully-conditioned  state  of 
society."  It  is  a  sort  of  upside-down  logic,  a 
complete  reversal  of  the  order  of  cause  and  effect. 
But  secularism  is  here  self-contradictory.  Human 
nature,  it  is  said,  is  itself  a  guarantee  of  morality. 
Yet  secularists,  "do  not  say  to  the  young,  without 
qualification,  consult  your  aptitude,  follow  your 
bias;"  for  if  that  language  were  used,  "the  immoral 
and  unprincipled  might  victimize  their  fellows." 
Now  if  it  be  not  safe  to  follow  the  "bias,"  how  can  it 
be  held  that  human  nature  itself  is  a  guarantee  of 
morality  ?  It  is  not  by  telling  us  that  men's  judgments 
are  on  the  side  of  truth  and  justice,  it  is  not  by 
adducing  some  stray  sentiments  in  heathen  literature 
— some  solitary  saying  of  Confucius,  or  some  beautiful 
maxim  of  a  Persian  poet — that  we  are  to  be  con- 
vinced of  the  existence  in  human  nature  of  indepen- 
dent and  sufficient  guarantees  of  morals.     No  one  de- 


APPENDIX.  617 

nies  the  existence  of  a  moral  sense  in  man.  But  tlie 
question  is  not  on  what  side  lie  the  judgments  of 
conscience,  but  what  is  the  natural  bent  of  men's  in- 
clinations.    Many  an  individual  can  say, 

"  Video  meliora  proboque ;" 
while  the  "Deteriora  sequor"  must  be  applied  to  his 
conduct.  Look  at  human  nature  on  a  broad  scale — 
on  human  nature  that  has  been  kept  entirely  free  of 
the  influences  of  Christianity — and  ask  where  are 
the  independent  guarantees  of  morality  ?  We  place 
the  wide  world  of  facts  over  against  proofless 
assertions. 

Secularism  admits,  after  all,  that  "there  is  another 
order  of  persons  besides  those  whose  well-balanced 
feelings  incline  them  to  morality — an  order  less 
happily  constituted  whom  error  misdirects."  Con- 
fucius' wonderful  saying,  at  which  our  secularist 
expounder  can  get  no  one  to  wonder  but  himself,  and 
which  may  be  paralleled  anywhere  except  "in  the 
Jewish  Scriptures,"  belongs  to  this  side  of  the  account 
rather  than  to  the  other.  Here  it  is,  "alas  I  find  no 
one  who  prefers  virtue  to  personal  beauty!"  One 
thing  about  it  is  very  wonderful,  viz.,  that  it  should 
be  adduced  in  proof  of  independent  and  snf&cient 
guarantees  of  morality  in  human  nature.  The  lament 
of  the  "poet-moralist"  may  be  taken,  however,  as  an 
incidental  proof  of  the  secularist  admission  that  there 
exists  a  class  of  men  whose  constitutional  tendencies 
lead  them  to  error.  These  "less  happily  con- 
stituted" persons,  secularism  would  govern  by 
knowledge   and  put   under   the   dominion   of   ideas. 


618  APPENDIX. 

"The  majestic  influence  of  intelligence  rules  a 
million  of  men  now,  whom  lust,  rage  and  rapine 
would  have  ruled  in  a  former  age."  Christianity,  of 
course,  gets  no  credit  for  it.  Oh  no!  it  is  all  "in- 
dependent" of  "  the  Jewish  Scriptures!"  The  accom- 
plished mechanic,  we  are  told,  dislikes  bad  machinery, 
the  expert  builder  hates  the  sight  of  an  ill-contrived 
house,  the  musician  is  enraged  at  false  notes,  and 
the  true  painter  will  not  endure  a  mediocre  picture. 
Knowledge  is  power:  only  put  man  under  the 
dominion  of  ideas,  and  all  his  errors  will  be  rectified 
and  his  bad  tendencies  checked!  Now  this  talk,  we 
submit,  is  not  to  the  point.  Christianity  seeks  to 
put  men  under  the  dominion  of  ideas.  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  of  which  secularists  think  so  little, 
and  the  Gospel  call  whioh  they  utterly  repudiate, 
have  this  for  their  aim.  The  question  is  what  are 
the  ideas  which  exert  a  regenerating  influence  on  the 
minds  of  men,  or  where  in  the  absence  of  Christian 
ideas  and  influences,  do  we  find  men  exemplifying 
such  conduct  in  relation  to  morals,  as  expert  builders 
and  true  painters  do  in  reference  to  science  and  art  ? 
Our  secularist  would  appeal  to  the  "  artistic  sense." 
The  appeal  has  been  made  and  the  decision  given 
Ions:  aero.     Intellectual  refinement  and  moral  vicious- 


'fc3 


ness  are  not  strangers  to  each  other.  The  age  of 
Pericles  and  Alcibiades  was  a  period  in  which  Greece 
stood  at  the  highest  degree  of  intellectual  improve- 
ment; and  "here,"  as  Tholuck  remarks,  "we  see 
directly,  in  the  clearest  manner,  how  little  the  mere 
cultivation  of  knowledge  and  refined  feeling  can  benefit 


APPENDIX.  619 

man,  when  not  accompanied  by  the  sanctification  of 
the  heart."  The  light  of  purity  stands  closely  con- 
nected with  the  light  of  knowledge,  but  the  inference 
from  history  and  experience  is  that  it  is  only  the 
knowledge  of  Christian  truth. 

But  "  allowing  that  some  men  and  women  are  good 
by  nature,  and  that  it  is  possible  by  the  culture  of  the 
artistic  sense  to  control  others  usefully,"  what  does 
secularism  propose  to  do  with  those  who  are  "both 
vicious  and  dull?"  The  appeal  then  is  "to  utility,  tc 
the  sense  of  interest."  If  you  can  make  nothing  of 
the  artistic  sense,  you  may  make  something  of  the 
sense  of  profit.  If  you  cannot  get  men  to  follow  vir- 
tue because  of  its  native  loveliness,  you  may  allure 
them  by  a  calculating  regard  to  the  benefit  that  arises 
from  it.  This  is  the  last  resort  of  secularism.  We 
need  not  predict  its  failure.  It  is  no  new  expedient. 
Men's  sense  of  utility  has  been  appealed  to  by  social 
reformers  in  all  ages.  The  ancient  schools  appealed 
to  this  as  well  as  to  the  artistic  sense,  and  in  so  far  as 
human  regeneration  was  concerned  the  appeal  miser- 
ably failed.  Men  are  not  led  to  practice  virtue  as 
they  are  led  to  the  market  and  the  exchange.  The 
strength  of  vicious  inclination  can  bear  down  all  sug- 
gestions as  to  real  and  ultimate  profit.  Appeal  to 
utility !  Carry  it  round  the  dens  of  vice  and  intem- 
perance, and  it  is  withstood  by  the  preference  for  the 
pleasures  of  sin  which  are  but  for  a  season.  It  is,  at 
the  best,  like  descanting  to  the  poor  and  naked  of  the 
golden  fields  at  a  distance,  while  you  give  them 
no  provisions  to  enable  them   to  prosecute  the  way. 


620  APPENDIX. 

We  have  not  a  few  publications  of  merit  appealing  to 
men's  sense  of  utility  and  prudence,  but  because  the 
appeal  goes  no  deeper  and  is  caried  up  no  higher, 
they  have  confessedly  failed  in  morally  elevating  the 
people  for  whom  they  were  designed.  Christianity 
appeals  to  utility.  It  says,  "  Godliness  is  profitable 
unto  all  things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that  now 
is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come."  But  Christianity 
has  constraining  influences,  and  adequate  provisions, 
of  which  other  systems  are  destitute.  It  has  a  line 
to  reach  the  very  lowest  depth  of  human  viciousness ; 
and  in  thousands  of  cases  it  has  turned  the  will  to 
choose  virtue,  brought  the  affections  to  delight  in  it, 
and  all  the  active  powers  to  practice  it,  where  appeals 
to  the  mere  "artistic  sense,"  or  to  the  mere  sense  of 
utility,  have  left  men  depraved  and  vile.  The  great 
and  good  things  to  be  effected  by  secularism  are 
only  suspended  in  promise — not  so  surely  suspended 
indeed  as  atheism  is  suspended  in  secularism  itself — 
but  the  good  deeds  of  Christianity  are  broad  palpable 
realities,  marking  off  the  regenerated  from  the  unre- 
generated  world.  It  is  only  in  proportion  as  the  race 
of  men  is  leavened  by  ^Y,  that  we  find  guarantees  in 
human  nature  for  morality,  that  a  true  culture  is  pro- 
moted, and  that  the  lovely  and  the  useful  meet  to- 
gether. This  is  no  mere  assertion.  We  appeal  to 
the  out-lying  world  for  proof 


